2010 – This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed

Less Studying, More Exploring

Post author:Concrete
Post published:December 18, 2010
Post category:Finger Lakes Institutional
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How better to enjoy finals week? Bernar'r Macfadden was a very eccentric man. His Castle on the Hill, the Dansville Physical Culture Hotel, served as a shining example of his health advice. The inventor of Grape-nuts and push-ups, Bernar'r (originally named Bernard; considering this name unmasculine he respelled it with the roar'r of a lion) considered fresh air, the outdoors and a raw diet essential to the promotion of health. Besides vigorous exercise, the hotel also offered the latest in music and theater, and lectures religious and secular, to contribute to its patients' mental health. This brochure from about 1938…

Cryptomnesia

Post author:Concrete
Post published:December 11, 2010
Post category:Concrete Institutional Rochester
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A December day and night in a previously unexplored part of Iola Sanitarium. There were prisoners (and prison guards) on the grounds in the afternoon, apparently this is one of the places the county brings them for exercise. This room is cleaner than mine. I'm a bit surprised there are no squatters here, especially with the electricity still on! This didn't quite come out as intended. This one did... We called this one the Murder Room. Even if all that got murdered was some film props. And this is where it gets interesting... all the outlets work, and a few…

Fluid Dynamics 103

Post author:Concrete
Post published:December 5, 2010
Post category:Concrete Industrial Rochester
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Third time at the Fluid Dynamics factory; not that I especially wanted to go back, but it's a place the new Concrete Collective hasn't seen, and we have a ride out there, so why not go for it... Watch out where the huskies go, never eat ammonia snow! Whittiker's First Law: Every abandonment has a shopping cart Whittiker's Second Law? The front door always opens! This little gadget is an explosimeter. Properly calibrated, it will let you know if the air where you are standing is imminently explosive. Luckily it is reading a 0% chance of blowing ourselves up. Unfortunately,…

Colossal Cave Adventures

Post author:Concrete
Post published:November 14, 2010
Post category:Concrete Rochester Underground
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It is dark. It is likely that you will be eaten by a grue. At the bottom of a long ladder, there are two passages, both alike. One goes nowhere. The other leads to a long, dark, endless tunnel. Your headlamp is not bright enough to see very far, so you continue on into the blackness. Suddenly, something reeks. You look around at the walls, and see this alien life form. It lets you pass into its chamber. Sound behaves strangely here. (Most of) our intrepid crew; Josh and Rachel wandered off somewhere, we should probably look for them sometime...…

Lost Art

Post author:Concrete
Post published:November 8, 2010
Post category:Outdoors Rochester
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Rochester is lucky enough to have four huge, legal graffiti areas. This is one of them, the abandoned water tanks at the top of Cobbs Hill. The art changes completely about every three months or so; on any sunny weekend there are a few painters around the towers making their art. It's one of the few places that one can actually see graffiti in action, since there is no fear of being caught at the legal walls. ...and one stray shot from another of these legal walls: the abandoned subway Plenty more graffiti shots here

Fluid Dynamics 102

Post author:Concrete
Post published:November 6, 2010
Post category:Industrial Rochester
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Back to the Kleen Brite factory... not all that much to say about the place, but you can't go wrong with industrial rust. The company went under, and left everything, right down to half done experiments in the labs This place must have been a nightmare for the plumbers Need any caps for anything? Photo album here