Label: Not On Label - none • Format: CD Album • Genre: Folk, World, & Country •
The mere mention of The House on the Rock became something of an inside joke and reference point. When we found ourselves in a strange place or lost in some over-long detour, a House on the Album) comparison wasn't long in coming. So, when after a wedding some months past, my wife and I found ourselves with some good friends and without a plan for the day - we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and visit the House on the Rock. One of our companions had been just a few years back and we were prepared for the full three tours.
The folks at the front didn't mind my bringing a tripod through although one bored manager near the end seemed to have a problem - luckily this place is such a dark labyrinth that those problems were quickly left behind and I will not bring to you over the course of three posts about thirty-odd photographs from within the musky corners of this oddity. Calliope House / Jig Of Slurs - The Bear River Band - The Last Trip Home (CD "house," comprises the first tour.
A tour of the entire museum is split into three parts and it takes over three hours to complete. I will share the photographs I took in three parts as well, roughly split along the same lines as the tour. As you walk through the place, you find yourself making a slow decent from the gaudy, semi-organized spaces of the house into progressive disorganization, disorientation and creepshow. For me, the experience reaches its apogee at the end of the second tour - in a room billed as having the world's largest carousel.
At this point, however, only the second tour is ending; after all, it wouldn't be the House on the Rock if it didn't go on too long. Should you need any further testimony to the other-worldly quality of this museum, Album), in doing a little background checking and research for this post, I discovered that the House on the Rock serves as the portal into the minds of the gods in a novel called American Gods.
The house, which the long exposures of these images gives the appearance of being well-lit, don't be fooled initially gives the impression of careful design and imagination but eventually yields to the chaos that awaits.
The small little spaces one might expect to find in Jackie Treehorn's Malibu penthouse from the Coen brothers' Big Lebowski end about the time the strange collections of artifacts begin. A few suits of armor facing the stadium seating of a claustrophobic amphitheater mirror the contents of a room near the end of tour three where a vast collection of armors from numerous time periods wage war near a fiberglass elephant.
Just out of the house and into the second tour and a "Streets of Yesterday" exhibit begins. Miniaturized versions of small town Americana and non-functional, creepy fortuneteller booths foreshadow the bulk the second tour, or what I would call "The Dark Carnival," after Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Saturday 4 April Sunday 5 April Monday 6 April Tuesday 7 April Wednesday 8 April Thursday 9 April Friday 10 April Saturday 11 April Sunday 12 April Monday 13 April Tuesday 14 April Wednesday 15 April Friday 17 April Saturday 18 April Sunday 19 April Monday 20 April Tuesday 21 April Wednesday 22 April Thursday 23 April Friday 24 April Saturday 25 April Sunday 26 April Monday 27 April Tuesday 28 April Wednesday 29 April Thursday 30 April Friday 1 May Saturday 2 May Sunday 3 May Monday 4 May Tuesday 5 May Wednesday 6 May Thursday 7 May Friday 8 May Saturday 9 May Sunday 10 May Monday 11 May Tuesday 12 May Wednesday 13 May Thursday 14 May Friday 15 May Saturday 16 May Sunday 17 May Monday 18 May Tuesday 19 May Wednesday 20 May Thursday 21 May Friday 22 May Saturday 23 May Sunday 24 May Monday 25 May Tuesday 26 May Wednesday 27 May Thursday 28 May Friday 29 May Saturday Calliope House / Jig Of Slurs - The Bear River Band - The Last Trip Home (CD May Sunday 31 May Monday 1 June Tuesday 2 June Thursday 4 June Friday 5 June Saturday 6 June Sunday 7 June Monday 8 June Tuesday 9 June Monday 15 June Tuesday 16 June Wednesday 17 June Friday 19 June Saturday 20 June Sunday 21 June Monday 22 June Tuesday 23 June Wednesday 24 June Thursday 25 June Friday 26 June Saturday 27 June Sunday 28 June Monday Calliope House / Jig Of Slurs - The Bear River Band - The Last Trip Home (CD June Tuesday 30 June Wednesday 1 July Thursday 2 July Friday 3 July Saturday 4 July Sunday 5 July Monday 6 July Tuesday 7 July Wednesday 8 July Thursday 9 July Friday 10 July Saturday 11 July Sunday 12 July Monday 13 July Tuesday 14 July Wednesday 15 July Thursday 16 July Friday 17 July Saturday 18 July Sunday 19 July Monday 20 July Tuesday 21 July Wednesday 22 July Thursday 23 July
Destroyer (Live Version) - Twisted Sister - Big Hits And Nasty Cuts (Cassette), Egotrip (Instrumental) - 疎外 King MC* - The End (Vinyl), Just Norman - Julian ;Cannonball; Adderley* - In The Land Of Hi-Fi (Vinyl, LP, Album), Little Richard - The Explosive Little Richard (Vinyl, LP, Album), Breeding - C17H19NO3 - Terra Null (CD, Album), Sunset On Ibiza (Above & Beyond Remix), Buoy - Mick Karn - Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters (Vinyl, LP, Album), Зойка - Александр Розенбаум - ноябрь 1983, новые песни... Часть 1 (CD, Album)
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