Olaf Eliasson's Waterfalls on the East river of New York is most similar to an industrial waterfall. Like the one in Paterson, New Jersey. Not overwhelming, in the way a natural waterfall can be. Not really overwhelming the way an art installation can be, either.
Best seen from a tour boat. Proximity, a key to waterfall viewing, is not allowed. They were no Gullfoss. You can't get your feet wet.
Ginger Strand's Inventing Niagara covers all the major components of waterfall management: building tourist traps, altering the landscape to accommodate throngs of people, sending weird things over the falls, and polluting.
The quality of a "tourist cave" (a term I swear I am not making up) depends up its quality of the morphization of its rocks by the tour guides. The proper guide can conjure up all manner of fairies, demons and food from the minerals.Penn's Cave is home to piles of rock looking vaguely like the Statue of Liberty, a Nittany Lion, bacon (a pereniel favorite), the Pope, and other tasty morsels. Or so said the tour guide. To me, they looked like rocks. Can't they just be rocks?All representation is morphic. You have to see the duck in flat line shape and color to "get" a picture of a duck. It's magical. Did Clyfford Still's abstract paintings, often characterized as "cave-like" suffer through double morphization? Is that brushstroke a dog represented by rock formation?
Penn's cave is navigated in a long narrow boat, six of which are floating through the cave at any given time. The boat goes through the narrow, winding series of rooms and passages, then out a hole blasted through the hillside, into a man made lake. You edge by some ducks and the dam, which backs up the natural stream that fills the cave half full of water. Penn's cave, when discovered, had a stream flowing through it. Now it has a lake in it, thus making it :"Penn's Cave - America's Only All Water Cavern and Wildlife Park".
I did not like Scott Morgan during my formative years (say between 16 and 36 years old) and it was chiefly due to his beret. And his seemingly tenuous connection to Detroit Rock glory years. In the 80's and 90's it was correctly assumed that anything that occurred after the first three Stooges and MC5 albums in the Detroit rock scene was busted.
But maybe it was just buried under the berets. Or unavailable, or unimaginable. The Bob Seger System lps were long out of print and Seger was embarrassing himself at that time. The Sonic Rendezvous Band squeezed off one great song and disappeared. Nothing else about them was known. The Rationals were unknown.Scott Morgan's two eighties albums suffered from eighties production and lack luster side men.
Fortunately, our current age of transparency has exposed all lost recordings. Scott Morgan, who has suffered from the neglect of the ages, has reemerged with recent work, that while not spotless, has been as strong and varied. He has released soul albums with The Solution, rock albums with Powertrane, rock albums with the Hydromatics and guested on rock songs with the Hellacopters. Maybe strong but not so varied.
The Powertrane featuring Scott Morgan with special guest Deniz Tek performance at Maxwell's was poory attended, at times sloppy, a little creaky. The drummer is fine straight up rock but can't find a soul groove. A couple songs chosen were not the strongest, especially as the band has transitioned from the Sonic's Rendezvous Band material that has floated many of Scott's recent efforts into newer material.Lyrics were being forgotten. But by the end, the three guitar attack of Robert Gillespie, Deniz Tek and Scott Morgan was absolutely in sync and roaring. It was pure noise: unhip, out of step and complete true to its uncompromising rock roots.
Let's take a moment to salute the end of an era. At the end of this month my Father will be retiring, leaving my brother, his Son, alone at the helm of the Howell Sears store.
Okay, done.
The Whip at Rye Playland has a surprising violence. I have always considered the Whip to be a quintessential date ride. Tucked into a rolling love seat, the fairer sex is gently nudged into the protective underarm and side of the gentleman. Centrifical force is employed as an aid to increasing affection. Next stop, Tunnel of Love. The Whip at Knoebel's Grove and at Kennywoodare prime examples of the amorous Whip.
The Whip at Rye Playland has other intentions. It attempts to destroy you. It attempts to use your body as a Kudgel to break your date into smaller pieces. It is the antithesis of love.
Pre-war amusement rides use a series of body blows to rough you up. More modern fare aims higher, causing severe head aches and sore necks.
Other violent older rides of note: The Wild Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Beach The Hi Speed Thrill Coaster at Knoebel's Grove
Have now visited a couple waterfalls around New Jersey. In Michigan, we didn't have waterfalls. Just "rapids." Nothing you couldn't guide a canoe through. Which reminds me that on my many visits to "Grand Rapids" Michigan, I never saw any such thing. Just saw a lot of disaffected white kids hanging around some crappy hotdog stand. In Philadelphia, I lived in "East Falls." No falls. Snuffed out long ago.
So, behold! The power of nature! Man's insignificance! The ever changing world! All that! Paterson uses abandoned industry as a place setting for its Falls. The American side of Niagara Falls without the Canadian side. A number of people sleeping, mid weekday, by the banks of the river.
WFMU's Uncle Andy and Uncle Ken threw a house party. Above the door buzzer: "Lonely Hippie Party." This was not false advertising.
Irving is interviewed about 5 minutes in. I just missed: they went by age, and at 39, I was next in line when the show ended. Irving also scored the pinata and ate his own weight in cookies.
I love WFMU but this may have broken a standing rule against fraternizing with the enemy, or in my case fraternizing with the same side I am on. Fraternizing with my fraternity? The rule, when summarized, goes like this: Don't make friends with people based on their likes and dislikes. This rule has kept me from: donning the embroidered satin jacket of the American (Roller) Coaster Enthusiast club, attending Cheap Trick's Trickfest conventions, meeting any other Stay At Home Dads and in general prevented me from having any worthwhile conversations for the past seven years. And good riddance! What do I want with meeting a bunch of (like minded) comedy geeks (friends)!
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