Friday, August 20, 2010

Fighting Figures and Real Magic


When I was a child, I was very lucky. I was loved, well fed, and very happy. I also had access to my own very healthy personal imagination and I had the freedom to go where it took me. I would spend hours staring at the clouds and huge oak trees covered with Spanish Moss and imagine them to be alive and animated (the clouds and the trees). It's as close to real magic as you can ever come. Being a professional magician, that's the feeling I try to capture for my audiences everyday. Sometimes I succeed VERY well. Sometimes I fail terribly, but it's my goal (as well as making sure the bank doesn't take away my home and my car). My friend Rob - The Whacky Wheeler (look it up... one of the most original acts on the planet) had been telling me about Dr. Evermor and his Forevertron for years, but because our schedules are always so hectic, we'd never made it up there. Dr. Evermors Park is about an hour away from Madison (kinda near Baraboo, Wisconsin)... so we really needed a full day off to check it out. Well the stars aligned this August and Oh Man!!! You see, Dr. Evermor was an industrial scrap guy. He spent his whole life scrapping interesting stuff. But not just interesting stuff... BIG INTERESTING STUFF...Like; rocket ships and huge towers of steel, and telephone booths, and aluminum and even thousands and thousands of oversized scissor blades. But he is no ordinary scrap guy, Dr. Evermor is an artistic and slightly comical cosmic genius. His park is filled with hundreds of very large bird shaped sculpted pieces and huge faux spiders and odd shaped structures that are just plain old cool. For example the main piece in the center of the park is called the FOREVERTRON. It's massive and looks like a launching pad for a steam punk space ship. In fact, it might even be just exactly what it looks like. I'm not sure. But the piece that captured my imagination the most was his... I don't know what they are called. I named them THE LITTLE METAL WARRIORS. Each small sculpture (about 12 inches tall) of a little fighting warrior is mounted on springs (they hold weapons and look fierce) they are all lined along a 20 foot metal pole. When you move the pole.. all the little metal men begin to fight. I bounced the pole and watched. It was magic. As I stood there watching the THE LITTLE METAL WARRIORS fight, I was taken back to the clouds and the trees of my childhood. Fantastic! Dear Dr. Evermor. I am Forever your fan! Steve Trash :)