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austin_dern So first, I bet you're wondering What's Going On In Rex Morgan? Wasn't Rex Morgan supposed to look weird? March - May 2026. Second, still recovering from Anthrohio and the split-flipper tournament at pinball league so please enjoy looking at pictures instead. This would be from the warm October day we went to the Spicer Mill for a furry meetup and the chance to see mystee and spouse and friends, and then head over to the Brighton Arcade.
But before we get to the mill, here's a picture we took to not forget some of the weird potato chips we brought back from our trip to Europe a few months previously. We liked the Grills Gerookt Fumé, like we expected we might.
And then a jigsaw puzzle update picture, this one a gift from my parents that showed all the spacecraft, boosters, space stations, and suits that had brought people to space. bunnyhugger made slight progress on it until specifically inviting me to fill in, like, the boring International Space Station solar panels and then I had the rest done in like fourteen minutes and was explaining stuff at her.
OK, now we're at the Spicer Orchards mill for the furry meetup, where I get an okay picture of some bees, bunnyhugger in outfit, and obscured pictures of everyone we came to see.
There was a natural photo opportunity spot that fursuiters flocked to.
I couldn't resist getting a picture of a windmill inside a windmill.
There were a lot of inflatable rides down below, as well as grease trucks. We figured to get shaved ice at soem point but a brief, intense rainstorm spoiled that.
There's a petting zoo over the farms too that looked neat and that between arriving late and getting rained on we didn't find time for.
I ask you, does this sky look like in twenty minutes you're going to be running for your car under buckets of rainfall?
Anyway on to The Arcade, which had the rest of the furry meetup; here folks gather for the group photo.
It wasn't all fursuiters, but they get the most attention.
But since it was a group for everyone I got in on the photo, and photographed right back at them.
The Arcade has this little fairy garden setting --- they still have it as of a couple weeks ago --- that goes unexplained except for, well, does this particularly need explaining?
Trivia: A pond in what became Hilltop Park --- the first home for what became the New York Yankees --- was marginally filled in by the start of the inaugural season, which the team owners had roped off and declared ground-rule double territory. Later they would try covering it with wooden planks or having fans stand in it. Source: The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, Kevin Baker.
Currently Reading: Walt Kelly's Pogo and Albert: At the Mercy of the Elephants, Walt Kelly. Editor Mark Burstein.
pilottttt posting in common_nature
You can find all the photos from the walk during which we found these ladybirds in this Russian-language post.
austin_dernAnd now, getting close to closing out busy in favor of just the regular week of stuff, here's the close of the day at Silver Beach.
So here's why I said ``one of'' the historic plaques: turns out this was the location of a historically significant early flight! I didn't realize although I'm sure I came across mention of the flight before. I bet there's a letterbox in the area we didn't think to look for.
I can't remember what this is the top of but it's a nice dramatic top at least.
Shipping channel that leads into town. There's a lighthouse at the end of the pier that must not be open to the public as we didn't even try to visit it.
I got maybe way too into the sunset but here's a picture that came out well.
Here's some seagulls with wings illuminated by the setting sun.
The sun close enough to the horizon that it's visibly distorted! Cool, huh? And thanks, seagull, because that shadow is one of the things I wanted in this.
I do so many pictures where someone is walking out of frame. I don't know why I like that theme so.
More seagulls intruding on the setting sun. I'm sorry this isn't illuminated quite so well but that might have been impossible to do.
And the trailing edge of the sun at the horizon line.
There was still plenty of light for an hour or two; here's bunnyhugger flying a kite under the moon.
There's two lighthouse beacons and a third (far left) that were blinking just close enough to each other, but a little out of phase, that I thought I might sometime get all three lit at once. Reader, I did not.
And the end of the day, with the sky looking like a picture of the Earth and atmosphere from space.
Trivia: Strawberries are members of the rose family Rosaceae. Source: Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells, Harold McGee. So are cherries, plums, pears, and almonds.
Currently Reading: Walt Kelly's Pogo and Albert: At the Mercy of the Elephants, Walt Kelly. Editor Mark Burstein.
lovelyangel Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk, Episode 7 |
austin_dernAm I busy? Yes, still. So are you going to get more photo dump of our Silver Beach photos? Yes, still. Will you enjoy? I don't know, that's on you.
Around the carousel are a couple of ride or ride pieces, possibly merely from things like the amusement park used to have, and since it was October, they had skeletons.
This was once a ticket booth but they'd set a robot witch up in it as though a fortune teller.
Bumper car that's lost its skeleton.
And a decoration on the side that bunnyhugger tolerated but didn't care for.
Now to the main part of the day, which was enjoying the beach. I didn't start taking pictures until late in the day.
I remember playing this album like four times a day in college.
bunnyhugger trying to get her dragon kite to fly; it would get up a little bit but never really caught the upper winds.
Still, it always makes for great eye-catching ribbons of light and color.
I liked the way the shadow of the fence and the shadow of footprints interacted here.
I don't know how this happened. I think I was trying to get a picture of the guy occluding the sun and somehow my camera made it into a weird double exposure moment.
One of the historical plaques in the area, this one explaining the park. And why do I say 'one of'? You'll see.
``Why do photographers call this the Golden Hour?''
Trivia: Russian Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed the League of Armed Neutrality in February 1780 in response to Spain --- recently joined the American Revolution --- seizing and auctioning off a Dutch ship carrying cargo for Russia, and then the similar seizing of a Russian ship. Source: The Diplomacy of the American Revolution, Samuel Flagg Bemis. Spain had pronounced a broader range of cargos and shipping activity to be bringing war materials to the enemy than France or the United Kingdom did.
Currently Reading: Walt Kelly's Pogo and Albert: At the Mercy of the Elephants, Walt Kelly. Editor Mark Burstein.
quippelovelyangellovelyangelmmcirvinaustin_dernToo busy to write, so here's more Silver Beach pictures.
More of the model train haunted village set up by the carousel. bunnyhugger has that haunted castle dark ride you can see at in the upper row, to the left of the clock.
The model railroad is set back when Amtrak had a logo that looked like anything, and it also has an out-of-scale giant headless horseman who may or may not be representing University of Michigan.
And then there's the level that just has Martians.
On to the important thing: the carousel. Note that you need to have one token to ride ...
And here we are! Two tokens, one for each of us, minted in ... 2020, when everyone suddenly had a lot of time on their hands.
bunnyhugger pauses to admire a Robert Addison serigraph she wishes she had. (She's got a different one that she's very happy with, though.)
We rode the dolphin and the goldfish, because what else would we ride?
Well, okay, the raptor, but someone had got on it when we took our ride.
Dragons are a popular motif for chariots because who wouldn't want to sit on a dragon given the option?
Oh yeah, we missed the chance to ride Ringo the Rooster. Sorry.
bunnyhugger does her part to reduce the number of pennies in circulation.
I'd never heard of Fred Dolle before but I've certainly heard of New Jersey. They kind of overachieved on the periods in the abbreviation of 'manufacturer' there. And there's your two-R spelling of carousel, not uncommon in those days. (North Bergen is on the Hudson river, a little north of Weehawken, which may not help you much except that Weehawken sounds liek a place you might have heard of.) Silver Beach's old carousel, now in Kennewick, Washington, was built by Dolle's company.
Trivia: On their release from North Korea the crew of the USS Pueblo (seized for spying) was greeted in person by the Commander in Chief of the United Nations Command in South Korea, General Charles Hartwell Bonesteel III, who in 1945 as a Colonel in the Pentagon drawn the zones-of-occupation line at the 38th parallel that had created a North Korea. Source: Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atomic Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers, Simon Winchester.
Currently Reading: Walt Kelly's Pogo and Albert: At the Mercy of the Elephants, Walt Kelly. Editor Mark Burstein.
austin_dernNext up on the photo roll: the Silver Lake Beach, which we visited on a gorgeously warm October day, because the climate is broken. But, great beach day. You're going to see it all.
Here's what brought us to that beach rather than any of the many others on Lake Michigan: the Silver Beach Carousel building. And what's inside?
Just a second. What's outside is a bunch of chalk art and some cornhole boards and stuff. Fun things.
But yes, what's inside is a Carousel Works carousel that we've been on before, like fifteen years ago, and enjoyed. Here's the seahorse underneath a rounding board that acknowledges there were people here before white guys moved in and hailed them a taxi.
Some more of the animals; the bear is the mascot of one of the regional schools. And yeah, that's a little tiger on the innermost row.
Huh, a Michigan State horse, wonder how that got here. Also you can see this is October because of all the skeletons.
It isn't just college mascots; nearby Benton Harbor's tigers get some representation, with a saddle that's nice and dramatically chained on.
There's peacock chariots, which I believe is something golden-age-of carousels also sometimes had. Also check out how they decorated the black horse for ... uh ... the University of Michigan Headless Horsemen?
In back of the building, though closed off which is why the pictures have that shot-through-glass haze, was a play area with toy appliances and a design-your-own-kitchen thing; Whirlpool has its world headquarters in the area.
I would like to ride through that 'The Squeeze' roller thing.
They've got a Herschell-Spillman organ and we were happy to hear it playing since a couple weeks later we got in a conversation with someone who was quite sure it was inactive.
They also had a lovely little elaborate model train setup, some with homemade gear, some with store-bought.
Didn't remember the Bates Motal had a skull gazebo, did you? Now you know.
Trivia: Until the 19th century the primary thing the word ``lozenge'' described was the diamond shape of the thing rather than its medicinal content. Source: Sweets: A History of Temptation, Tim Richardson.
Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books.
dewline
matrilaustin_dernOn my humor blog there was bonus comic strip plot recapping and a bit that actually tells about the severe weather we had Monday, a point that you might not hear about here until tomorrow or later. Who can say?
And now a dozen photos closing out the evening at Sparks.
Oh hey it's c_eagle!
This is a little island of mostly late-80s pinball games near the handwriting analyzer, which is just on the right edge of the screen. One of those games is Bugs Bunny's Birthday Bash, which you never see and never play in a tournament (the game has a fun randomizer prank at the end that can give people ridiculous points or swap scores or other such competitive-play-wrecking goofiness).
Besides Showbiz Pizza there's also stuff from Aladdins Castle franchises.
Here's one of the more exciting walls, with a lot of early-80s games.
Up front's a counter with 80s vintage clutter, including a pre-2600 Atari and at least two Muppets-themed lunchboxes.
And here's a counter with plenty of Pee-Wee merchandise. Note that, for example, the little Pee-Wee doll sitting on Chairy in the Playhouse set (bottom center) doesn't count toward the sixteen dolls total. Also note the pride flags, which may not seem like a big thing until you remember how much pinball is about selling to middle-aged white guys who have ten thousand bucks they can put into a game machine the size of a dining table.
Sparks does try to educate about pinball history, and fortunately ``did you know pinball used to be against the law?'' is the sort of hook that makes for easy and very readable explanation.
View into the arcade from near the pinball history sign. Yes, that's a two-player Joust pinball machine on the left. Also I'm able to point to at least three of the Pee-Wee pull-string dolls that are in frame, though you'd be hard-pressed to locate them given the picture's darkness and resolution.
Back to the electronic handwriting analyzer; I think this was showing off how the machine feeds the cards out to the customer.
Here's the personality types that your handwriting might assign you. (This was a sample card; the machine wasn't remotely working so this is neither me nor bunny_hugger.)
The other side of the card explains how this is totally not bunk, which you need for the bunk to be satisfying.
Last game of the night: bunny_hugger mouses around a little. I don't know what's going on with the backglasses for Party Zone and Bugs Bunny's Birthday Bash to her right there.
Trivia: A beveled bookshelf has a small diagonal cut near the top edge of the shelf. A cambered shelf's upper side curves down to the flat lower shelf. A chamfered side is symmetrically curved top and bottom. Source: The Book On The Book Shelf, Henry Petroski.
Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books.
austin_dern Back on normal things. Sunday bunny_hugger's parents visited, not so much to see the house but as a staging area to get to the garden center. They hung around a little, at least, and her mother got to see the backyard and that somehow a couple goldfish had wintered over in the pond, and her father went with us to the Quality Dairy for ice cream.
The garden center was the main goal. But first, the small farm a long block away, where we found, first, the guy who actually runs the place there and talking in great and convincing detail about the plants he was selling. bunny_hugger regretted she'd got some particular plants the previous week when she saw them available; these were better. Also, we saw what young celery plants look like, a moment which made me realize I had no concept of what celery plants look like. And this in Michigan, once the nation's fount of celery; Kalamazoo used to be known as Celery City. (California's now the big celery state, although Michigan is second place. A very distant second.) Third, we found some of the plants bunny_hugger or her mother planned to get at the garden center so, great, we can buy local. Fourth, word that tomato plants were likely to be ready for buying next week.
(Also nobody mentioned a dead groundhog lying on its back near the barn. It didn't look like it had been preyed on or hit by a car, but I can't say more because I didn't want to ask.)
The garden center was a nice visit, as usual. There wasn't any evidence of the peacocks that were once pets and a symbol of the store, but that didn't surprise me anymore either. It was a hot, sunny, day, and bunny_hugger remarked that the sprawling center would be perfect if only they had an ice cream counter. It would have given her father something to do besides rushing back to the car to sit while waiting for us to finish shopping.
And once that was done, bunny_hugger had only the challenge of getting everything in the ground and watered some before Wednesday. Why that is a story to be revealed soon.
Some more pictures from our October night at New Sparks. Hope you like pinball backglass photos!
The back wall of Sparks --- you can see the backroom open behind there --- has a bunch of video games plus, you can see, stray mannequin hands.
Here's the pinball machines opposite that back wall. Mostly 1960s/70s electromechanicals plus, for some reason, Jersey Jack's Dialed In.
Backglass art for Comet --- so this year we saw two separate instances --- showing the extreme angle that's an exciting dramatic view for the first of the Python Anghelo roller coaster games. Don't look closely at the people in the fourth row.
And late-80s game Party Animals, with that art that shows what furries had to content themselves with before furry art was a coherent genre.
Big House is another game we don't get to play enough. We don't know why some of the characters are funny animal versions of, like, Edward G Robinson and Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre while there's plain old humans in other art moments.
Besides pinball and Pee-Wee Herman MJB is a fan of Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheese and has collected and shared things from it.
Trivia: Detroit had something like seven thousand speakeasies, blind pigs, beer flats, and such in 1923, and triple that by 1928. Source: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent. I admit not being sure how this could be known since there wasn't a single contemporary party lacking reason to exaggerate the number.
Currently Reading: The History of the Telescope, Henry C King.
lovelyangel |
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