Sizzle & Bounce
Foam, Dinosaurs, and Chicken I thought I would be able to see it from the road – you could see the real Stonhenge from the road. The directions given on the website gave me to understand that it was a bit out of the way, but I assumed there would be some sort of sign, parking spots, something. In fact, there was nothing at all that would indicate to someone who hadn’t been informed by the internet that there was anything by the side of this particular road except the slightly out-of-place looking car with the California license plates pulled off onto the shoulder bearing the bumper sticker “liberated lady.” Still, that was enough for me to guess that I probably was in the right place. So, I tramped across dirt paths in an otherwise unremarkable filed under a blazing hot sun, following the path that looked a little more well-trodden than the others, until I came around a bend, looked to my left and off on the top of hill....suddenly it's…..Foamhenge. Ascending the hill, I hear Spinal Tap singing "Stonehenge" in my head. And then suddenly there he is. Christopher Guest. Or. Not. As the sign explains, this Merlin statue was molded on the face of Jamie Jordan, a friend of Foamhenge creator Mark Cline, and such a big fan of his work that he asked Mark to use him in it somehow. As the sign goes on to explain, the mold of his face was made from Jaime’s face - 2 days after Jaime died. You start to realize that this Mark Cline might be something of a larger than life personality. And then you read on another sign that he is, by his own admission “crazy enough to key your car” if you deface his sculpture, and that he could quite possibly be in the woods, watching you even now., if you are even thinking about trying to. And this is where you just have to decide: You are standing on the top of a hill in the Blue Ridge mountains with no one to hear you scream and you can either just surrender yourself to the experience of living in Mark Cline's world - all of it or none of it - or just go home. I realize that apart from the prohibitions about touching and the story of Merlin, there is in fact very little by the way of interpretive signage to guide the visitor in what to make of this experience. You are engage to do a comparison Foam to Stonehenge in terms of materials, construction, and there is a bit of history about Stonehenge, but nothing about Foamhenge the artist, why he made this, or why - what kind of a tribute this is intended to be, or what its significance is. You get to make your own meaning! I am transported to discovering the “Send Up” - the parodic genre of British humour - Search for the Holy Grail sending up everything that I was learning at that time in my Humanities class, the Life of Brian everything that was my religious upbringing - Spinal Tap the rock-u-menatary, and here my first experience with a mock-u-ment. The online reviews say that this is one of the more photogenic of the tribute henges. What I know is that it makes me smile, and it makes my heart sing that there is someone who would conceive of something like this, devote the time and energy and resources to creating it, and then share it with the world. I was delighted for the invitation to play! “Mark is amazing!” Is what I learn down the road, as I purchase my ticket to Mark Cline’s Dinosaur Kindgom II (Dinosaur Kingdom I burned down, you must understand). The cashier is preparing me to the experience that I am about to have inside the park, but I am already having an experience in the parking lot that seems to be designed to make me think I am in the film Jurassic Park because there is a safari across the road and the piped-in sound of dinosaurs roaring behind the enormous tree fence. “Mark made everything you will see inside, and you just have to make sure to always be looking all around you, and taking in everything, cause its just everywhere!” With this, I am off, and again, there is but one sign, already in the world of the story explaining that it is the time of the civil war and confederate soldiers figured out a way to unfreeze dinosaurs that they discovered in the nearby Natural Bridge caverns. They will use them to help fight their northern aggressors, but as you are told by the minimal signage “not everything will go according to plan.” Upon entering the exhibit, the first thing you must do is walk through a spinning “tunnel of love” style covered bridge which is apparently your means of transport back in time. Once through, you learn that you have arrived to the time of the civil war because there is now an Edsel parked by the side of the road. Nothing calls attention to it – you see it in your peripheral vision and take for granted, because this is precisely the kind of thing that would be the most ordinary thing that you might see without noticing on a typical day in your new reality. Dinosaur Kingdom II is a confusing, fantastic place! Time, space, and realities are jumbled up. And just when you think all is moving towards a picture of co-existence (well, subjugation on the part of the dinosaurs), there is another rebellion, and dinosaur and man, possibly vampire hunter(?) are back at it and fighting again. From what you now know about Mark Cline, you will perhaps not be surprised to learn that there is no clear narrative resolution as you follow the gravel path (again, there are multiple, you must choose the one that is the most gravely), but that along the way, you are rewarded for noticing. My favorites were the (as I termed them) “hide-o-saurs” just back in the woods tracking you. Not menacing, just taking you in. And when you happened to glance them out of the corner of your eye, they seemed designed to see you noticing them “oh, hi!” Coming back to the present is also confusing. You travel through the transom of a church, exiting through the sacristy, and something was supposed to have been happening….music playing? Lights blinking? I assume that something was malfunctioning and it wasn’t supposed to be just a high pitched squeal-like alarm accompanying you as you walked down the aisle of a quaint little church, but actually, maybe this is the message. You walk through religion, and then into an outhouse, where a dinosaur terrifies you by breaking into the back as you take your selfie! In our estimation, the only thing that could properly complement this series of adventures was some southern-style fried chicken from the Chicken Coop! Served to you by a lady who ain't got time for your nonsense in asking if you can photograph her, brought home, still piping hot, crispy, light and absolutely delicious!!! Leftovers for days - and even better cold!!!
1 Comment
Eugene and Fran Trester
8/28/2016 02:15:25 pm
Terrific news! Congratulations and Best Wishes!!
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Anna Marie & KirstenWe met at "The Porches" writers retreat one summer, and a love for cooking, conversation and adventures brought us here. ArchivesCategories |