MTV Spaceman

I recently visited another roadside attraction. It is a giant replica of an MTV Spaceman which is safely locked inside the lot at Acme Industrial Surplus in Sanford Florida. Back in 2004, he was used for the MTV Music Awards when they were held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. MTV Spaceman

Nikkormat Film Camera Refurbishing

 The folks at ACR Camera Repair in Abilene Texas did a great job in refurbishing my vintage Nikkormat Film camera. Here are some photos of my camera as they were working on it. The specialize in repairing classic and vintage cameras here is a link to their web site  ACR Camera Repair.

 

My Stereoscope

A stereoscope is a device for viewing stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. They were very popular  from the 1850’s to 1920’s.Stereoscope

Giant Beethoven Head

On a recent trip to Fort Myers Florida I looked up the Giant Beethoven head. The mighty Ludwig guards the entrance to  Pyramid Village, a community of futuristic tent-like condos built by a bunch of Austrians as a vacation resort. Apparently nothing says “vacation” like a giant, scowling head of Beethoven.

The resort is tucked into an inconspicuous plot of land between a housing development and busy US 41. The pyramids, which are designed to be hurricane- and burglar-proof, were invented by engineer Walter Freller. The village opened for business in 2002, and a tiny Sphinx was placed in front of the giant head in 2003. It is all very strange.

Former pyramid resident Janice Lassonde provides these insights: “The pyramids were built by Austrian people as a Florida resort property. The Beethoven head was a joke amongst the Austrian originators of the Pyramids. They said that now that they had ‘Austrian’ pyramids, they now needed an ‘Austrian’ Sphinx to go with them — thus the Beethoven ‘Sphinx’ was erected.

“The pyramids are  two bedroom units. There is a sandy beach and a beautiful pond/pool to swim in inside the circle of the pyramids. They are mostly marketed to Europeans for vacations.Â