Dallas Anderson

I received word through a reader comment that the sculptor Dallas Anderson passed away yesterday. This is a post to remember him. I am grateful that I was able to meet him and hear so much about his life and work, as a result of this hunt, item #6.

closer to #29 - Recite 'Mad Girl's Love Song' to a public crowd

Heide Music (0:04) is where I was guitar shopping yesterday.

Avenue Jewellers (0:07) across the street on the corner is where I was looking for Obsidian.

Modacapelli (2:10) is where I get my hair cut.

Here's the poem I read instead:

Sentinel

Blue sky but a chill wind picks up
and whips across the ground.
The grass is sharp, still green, but dry.
People in the stands pull hats and scarves tight
and think how the wind must feel
on the bare legs of the players.
A white cloud passes.

Behind the stands, a sandstone escarpment
watches the white cloud go,
green grass hair on top, its sandy face
turned up and away, toward different threats
in the distant sky.

More on #6

#16 - Rarer item (in my opinion) than any on this list

Submitted for your approval:



A 1943 T6 US Air Force training plane. My friend David is a part-owner, and flew it with another pilot from California to Oshkosh for last week's EAA event.

I met him and his group for dinner and then afterward we went back to the show grounds and kind of talked our way in the gate ("We need to drop something off at Warbird camp"), and then I just had the most magical evening ever, walking around and seeing hundreds of planes of all shapes, size and vintage, with the sun setting in the west and lightning in the clouds off in the distance to the east. David knows everything about every kind of plane there ever was and is also a very good and patient teacher, so I learned a tremendous amount. And, because I have a thing anyway for old cars, it was easy to transfer that to a giddy fascination with all these planes of similar eras and styling.

I explained to him that I wanted the photo to use as a candidate for #16 in the hunt, but he said, "Do you think it will look less rare if it's standing in a line with 70 others?" Because this year is an anniversary, so a whole squadron (if that's the right word) of this same model of plane gathered for a few days in Dubuque and then flew in, in formation.

So, what do you reckon? Does this count as rare enough?

Photos from the T6's journey from CA to WI are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/david.cohn/TheRoadToOshkoshJul08

#14 - Penny minted in 1982

Here is a 1982 penny, for you. Too easy, this one. I went through my bowl of change and actually found two - this is the one that was in better condition.

It was easy to find recent dates - I found a bunch of 2008's. The earliest one that was clearly legible was a 1955. I looked for a 1963 (for me) but didn't find one, the closest was 1964. Since that's the year the Beatles arrived in the US, I sometimes used to round up, but for the hunt the rules are strict.

Pennies are somewhat difficult to photograph, because if you center it in the viewfinder it ends up off the screen of the actual lens. But I think it came up nicely in this photo.

#7 - Magic Wand

This photo was taken at Art in the Park, and annual art fair that takes place in City Park in Appleton (the park that features Dallas Anderson's "Ring Dance" sculpture). It featured more than 200 artists, in tents arranged all over the part, so there was quite a bit to see.

This is another surreptitious cell phone photo, because usually the art at these fairs is copyright by the artists and photos are not allowed. I pretended to be texting someone and hoped the people beside me didn't hear the camera-shutter "click" sound my phone made when I snapped the picture.

This stand featured lots of whimsical brass sorts of objects that you could stake in your garden. The magic wands were stuck in big black flower pots, and each one had a glass ball at the top and colorful ribbons of metal all around them. Because I took the photo so hastily and sneakily you can actually only see one wand in the photo, above the dog in the flower pot. Here's a detail where it's a bit more clear:



I didn't buy one, because they are, er, not exactly to my taste, but I did buy two other things:

- A beautiful plate by Simon Levin (see woodfire.com), which was fired with another pot sitting on top of it, so as the hot ash blew by it created a shadow of the original pot on the surface of the plate. I went back three times before I decided on it, so we had chatted a bit about his technique, and he said, "Yes, it's the narrative, once you learn about the narrative of the design you can read it in the object." Since I have been working, off and on, on a project all about narrative and art and the meaning of life, is it any wonder this appealed to me? Simon is local, so I hope to see more of his stuff at other shows.

I brought the plate home and set it beside another piece I bought two weeks ago up in Door County, which was fired in a similar way, made by Diane McNeil of Ellison Bay Pottery Studios.

- Two cards by Milwaukee illustrator Nedobeck, who does lovely little whimsical pieces (I think they're watercolor and drawing) that are cute but not too childish. Mom and sister, don't peek, because these are for you!

#2 - Handcuffs and first seriously broken rule

To find handcuffs, I went to the History Museum downtown, which has absorbed the Houdini Museum (he lived in Appleton for a few years as a child) and has an extensive exhibit upstairs. I knew there would be handcuffs there, in fact I remembered looking at a display that showed how he tapped the screws of the connectors between the cuffs and used that to release them during his escape acts.

But before I even got to the front desk to pay the entrance fee, I was confronted with a large, prominent sign that said something along the lines of "No photography of any kind anywhere in the whole building. Please check all cameras at the front desk."

Okay. I didn't check my cameras, either the still one or the video one, but I decided the least conspicuous thing would be to use my phone. I could always pretend I was sending a text or something.

Naturally, since it was a rainy afternoon (including some strong thunderstorms and
even marble-sized hail), every parent in town had brought every child in town to see the Houdini exhibit, so it was tricky to maneuver into a spot where no one was looking. Why wasn't the object a 1960's Barbie Dream Home, a Slinky, or Catholic vestments, all of which were in the 60's exhibit downstairs which was completely deserted and quiet? Also, I wasn't sure the commands to take a photo on my phone so had to duck into a small room that showed the wrist straps with metal holders that Houdini used to levitate tables in fake spiritualist seances, and turn off the keypad beeps, and get the menu all cued up to take a photo with one click, so I could do it quickly and surreptitiously when the opportunity arose. I finally slunk into a corner and got one shot when the Mom and kids beside me were distracted, then repaired downstairs. But when I went to the Ladies Room to check my work, the photo was all black. I knew I had to try again.

First I lurked around the gift shop, which was completely empty and hidden from the kid who was manning the front desk, and got this shot of a book about handcuffs, which I thought would do in a pinch.



Then I headed back upstairs and tried again. There was a perfect, secluded spot with lots of handcuffs and no kids, but a guy who looked even more suspicious than me was lurking there, and when I passed back around after about five minutes I heard lots of jingling and saw that he had locked himself in a pair of the handcuffs and was trying to escape from them, with lots of apparent struggling and little success. So I walked on, to a big display in the front room. The father and son who had spend ages in front of it finally moved on and I had my chance. Raised my camera but somehow was only getting images that were all black, or flashes of white light. Was there not enough light in the room? But why had the bookshop book photo turned out so well? Then realized that, doh, I had my hand over the camera lens. While I was doing this I was attending to the camera and not my surroundings and could very easily have been found out. But once I was getting an image on the screen I quickly pointed, quickly clicked, quickly went back down the stairs.



Taking these photos was so prohibited that if the History Museum ever finds this blog, I will be banned for life for sure. First real rule broken in pursuit of the hunt.