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LATE FRIDAY NIGHT

August 01, 2003

Spent way too many hours watching Thomas Edison’s “moving pictures” from the late, late 1800’s. Absolutely amazing. Those times seem so static and almost…”lifeless” or something. Maybe it’s the fact EVERYTHING is accessible in our times. Every event or change is captured. Our lives are just one big digital dump…recorded and rerecorded and stored somewhere.

Albeit gritty, Edison captured his times. I remember going to Greenfield Village as a kid, my favorite stop was Edison’s Menlo Park labratory. They moved the whole building, contents and all from New Jersey. You make yer way in, and up the stairs to his studio, and there sits a chair, nailed down in the same location where he sat as he tested his first lightbulb. History, folks. The place was magical. Walls of powders and potions, table after table of thingamajigs and doohickies and such. I remember getting cattle-herded back down the stairs, as other groups of bored fucks needed to aimlessly pace by the exhibit.

(Speaking of Greenfield Village….one can’t help but mention the Henry Ford Museum that is connected to it. For fuck’s sake, they have the rocking chair Lincoln was assassinated in…blood stains and all! Once again, history.)

To see his movies gives life to that period. Check out how the people dress and react. A different time. Imagine if he was around 50 years earlier…

I poached the link from the extraordinary Coudal Partners site. I drop by each day to see what they’ve uncovered…and man, I’m hooked. Intriguing stuff, to say the least. Lots of “command-D’ing” going on from our end, if you know what I’m sayin’. Coudal looks like a cool joint. Chicago guys. Interesting ideas.

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NOTE of APPRECIATION: Special thanks to Dad for those summer forays to the Dearborn museums. I remember one summer–say, ‘85 or something–where he bought a “summer pass” that allowed us to go each time we were down in Detroit. We went a bunch of times and checked out everything. I miss those days.

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