Rochester

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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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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Colossal Cave Adventures

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...…

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Lost Art

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

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