Friday, September 11, 2009

Tuesday, Sept. 8 - Part 2

continuing on with our tour of The House on the Rock...

One of more than 200 models of an old-time ship in the Heritage of the Sea Building.


A large model of the Titanic. There were also numerous artifacts from and descriptions of the ship's voyage and sinking.


This is a model of the 200-foot long whale we are about to see in the Heritage of the Sea Building. He is in a to-the-death battle with a giant octopus. The two intertwined beasts are the unmissable (is that a word?) center of attraction in the building as "a walkway takes you up and up, so you can inspect this fearsome creature from all angles, and at varying heights. Along your way, there are hundreds of smaller seafaring exhibits to delight you..."


The eye of the giant octopus doing battle with the whale.


You can get an idea of the size of this whale by the life-size model of the seagull flying near its mouth.



Some more of the whale teeth...


These Burma Shave signs (from Route 66, each word or phrase would be on a billboard and you'd have to drive a mile or so till you got to the next one --- so I'm told) were near the end of an exhibit called "A Tribute to Nostalgia."


This is one of the smaller music machines in the "Music of Yesterday" Building. "The wizardry involved in the mechanical activation of the instruments, a hallmark of much of the house's musical collection, is intriguing, a feat of both engineering and musical artistry."

This is called the "Peacock Organ" (out of the picture, on top, is a peacock with his feathers fully extended). "Inside the cabinet, a 91-key Mortier organ leads an ensemble which includes accordion, percussion, and horn."




A butterfly collection.







I think this picture is from "The Blue Room" (but I'm not sure). If it is, it is part of a full mechanically operated symphony orchestra.


This music machine, called "The Mikado," is of obvious Oriental theme, and takes up an entire room. "...creating an eye-popping, bone-rattling musical tour de force."


This is a close up of the two lifelike Japanese figures playing kettle drum and flute. As they play, the sinister-looking eyes move and seem to follow you around the room (other facial features move too). Loud booming music. "All together, the Mikado's sonic and visual impact are as awe-inspiring as its physical size."


Part of one of the automated music rooms. (might be the Mikado but I'm not sure).


A collection of old cash registers.


One of many gorgeous chandeliers in one of the music rooms.


This is a small part of the musical ensamble in The Red Room. This is a "Russian musical fantasy of Czarist ornamentation and grandeur. And more than that, it plays an impressive 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.'" To me, it seemed that there must surely be invisible people playing those violins!





This building housed an exhibit called "The Spirit of Aviation" and presented the history of aviation from WWII through the 1960's.





One of the buildings houses the world's largest carousel. It is 80 feet across, 35 feet tall, and "carries 269 fanciful, handcrafted carousel animals in up to 7 concentric ranks, NONE OF WHICH IS A HORSE!" It took 10 years to plan, construct, and hand-finish.




I love lights and sparkly things and was just mesmerized by this carousel as it went round and round to the loud tunes of the mechanical band nearby. It had more than 20,000 lights and 182 chandeliers o--- plus a 1740 square foot mirror behind it which doubled everything!


I wanted to hop up on one of the animals and ride and ride and ride....





No comments:

Post a Comment