Author: Concrete

This author has written 232 articles

Air Force 763

A relic from the age of missiles, AFRS (Air Force Radio Station) Cambria was the command center for the Niagara region's rocket program. While not a launch site itself, Cambria was still the largest of the bases, with barracks for the entire 763rd who served around Niagara county, a school, a gym and drill building, a computer center, and a (very) hardened bunker, the only building on base we couldn't get in. Inexplicably, the main road through the base is a Unicorn Drive; this probably had some military significance at the time, but now it's a weird aside. The Fightin'…

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We Are Concrete

Somehow, on the night of January 17th, we found ourselves back in the tunnels of Iola, with little else but ambition and a bottle of Jim Beam. (Try it sometime. Ambition and Jim Beam are probably listed as essential ingredients in any anarchist's cookbook, with all it did for us!) Somewhere along the line, the idea came up to make exits at each building, then use the tunnels as a secret passage for some sort of event. Thinking about it, we decided with mostly sarcasm the event had to be a rave. There would be a practice round, and pending…

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The Worst Day Since Yesterday

What better way to escape from Laura than skipping a few classes and going exploring on a Monday? First location was back at Sykes Datatronics again, I'm hoping I got a different look at it this time around? After that, we returned to the ever more interesting Iola Sanitarium, for building #7 this time I suspect these were some sort of holding cells. Building #7 found use after Iola closed as an office for the county department of Corrections. At the end of this basement was a cinderblocked-off doorway. Ever the curious (and frustrated) one, I threw a poorly aimed…

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Less Studying, More Exploring

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…

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Cryptomnesia

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…

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Fluid Dynamics 103

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,…

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