posting video

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I've previously linked to the studio video of Weird Al's "Dare To Be Stupid." Just for the thrill of embedding a video on my page (thanks to the LJ announcements on my friends list for the instructions), here is the live version. I was impressed by how tight they are on this, but I already knew Al was a professional.

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ps: New user icon. I was thinking the photo was by dd_b, and now it turns out to be by Dave Romm. Is he on LJ? If he's under a pseudonym and wishes to keep it a secret, would he please email me via my web page? It's in my user info. Ta.
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ruins of the day

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I went out and about today. First, to the post office, and then up Rte. 5 to Holyoke, in search of a music store I'd heard about. I stayed on 5 all the way past Holyoke and passed something interesting -- a state park devoted to some dinosaur footprints. I made a note of it, checked the map, and turned around. Actually, I waited for the odometer to pass 111111 first, so I wouldn't miss it. Yeah, I took a picture.

On consulting the map once more, I found the music store and browsed intensively. It's the best-stocked one I've seen around here so far, which unfortunately isn't saying a heck of a lot, but I managed to spend a half hour or so examining fronts and insides of books. I even bought a piece of sheet music before deciding I'd browsed the place dry, consulting the map once again. This time I decided I'd do something I'd been thinking about for a while. I went to Mountain Park. Heck, I'm out of words and still have links. Yes, I said Mountain P ark.

As anybody who's looked at these links can tell you, the place is derelict. How derelict, I only found out when I got there. I parked where there were gates across the road, picking a shady spot, and started walking along the old road to see what was left. The sign for the water slides had a little paint left on it. It was probably the best-kept item in the park. I looked at parking lots with weeds and trees growing up through the asphalt. I followed one or two paved paths among the rampant flora. There were some steps here, a roof there. One whole steel building was still standing -- sort of a giant carport kind of thing, maybe an old skating rink. Other than that, there were pipe-type frames here and there, and mostly piles of worn-out lumber sinking into rot. I still took pictures, usually two per item, in case the first was blurred. As long as I was taking two, I did some as stereo pairs as well.

I followed off-road asphalt paths back toward my car, watching the time. This wasn't taking terribly long, but I kept following leads in the hope of finding something with a fraction of an ounce of personality left in it. There were some light hoods on the ground. I photographed those. More piles of lumber. Barrels. A circuit box on a pole. Then I found the miniature golf course, with the sign still mostly intact, being constructed of cement with the words cut out. "GOLF" was okay. "MT PARK" had gotten most of the interstices knocked out by determined vandals. But the structure, walls and a ramp up and down, was still intact. I walked up a ramp to the back of the sign and looked at more piles of lumber behind it. I took beauty shots of the corpse of the mini golf course. Golf corpse! Green rugs still clung to rectilinear fairways. I worked my way past it, trying not to rub against any possibly poisonous weeds.

There was a cement foundation of something or other, and a little bridge at the far end, which reminded me of the stone bridge I explored near the former swimming pool (WPA job) in nearby Mittineague park. I bravely went up another ramp, crossed the bridge, then went back down. My subsequent reading reveals that this was a railroad bridge, which the miniature train used to run under when the train used to circle the mini-golf area. Farther on were the remains of a square cement "well" with stones in the sides, and a conical roof still standing over nothing. I seemed to be near the old parking lot again. My car should be somewhere nearby. I kept seeing things that almost bore a trace of their old functions: a long board with holes spaced regularly down the length of it was probably some sort of game. An old steel fridge lay on its side. There was a sign, broken in two, to the effect that the Food Bank was here on March 4. No idea when it dated from. A door or something with an odd-shaped hole in it lay nearby. It meant nothing to me.

Huge piles of lumber were in back of everything. Enormous timbers suggested that I was looking at the park's roller coaster, disassembled and heaped copiously. Not even worth covering in graffiti, apparently, though the writers had managed to hit just about everything else. I emerged onto another side road, checked out an ornate gate at the far end, then returned to my air-conditioned vehicle. I crossed over the interstate and worked my way back to Route 5, pausing to look at a strip of old asphalt in the woods. Something to do with the old trolley line? Who knows?

I made it to get Sarah, passing some things I intend to revisit or photograph later, like a white house with a brick wall going up to shield it from the road. Fascinating. I got to the day care at about two minutes after five. I'd had a day out. It would have been a lot more fun with geckoman along, or somebody who likes to explore stuff.

ps: I hit some key or keys while typing the above that makes my icons big. Like my userpic, and my lj user name. No idea how to fix it, but maybe if I go away and come back it'll fix itself. (Found it: ctrl + , makes stuff smaller, and ctrl + . makes it bigger -- it's windows, not LJ.)
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