Interesting Ideas

August 10, 2003 2:21 AM

Interesting Ideas. Roadside and outsider art: prison art, Chicago's lakefront, anonymous portraits, ruins, motels, etc.
Related Outsiderart.info.
posted by plep (10 comments total)

Interesting Ideas has been mentioned in a couple of via's before, but hasn't had its own FPP as far as I can tell ...
posted by plep at 2:21 AM on August 10, 2003

This site is like America's attic. I haven't actually been digging around there for ages, yet it was one of the first truly exciting sites I found in my early days online, and one of the first to spark my penchant for surfing. I somehow came upon The Gyros Project - immediate addiction! I love that the site is a total labyrinth, it's like meandering down some back roads with no destination in mind.

It's rife with so many treasures, from Joe 40,000 Murphy to Bottle Cap World. I'd like to see him expand beyond gyros in his "food art." For example, he may want to add this life size Harley Davidson created from butter.

Many new things here - thanks for calling this great site to mind!
posted by madamjujujive at 6:04 AM on August 10, 2003

Oh, wow -- I'd never seen this site before and I can already tell I'm going to burn up hours clicking around here. And it's really making me dream about taking a long car trip on the two-lane blacktops. Thanks, plep!
posted by Kat Allison at 6:18 AM on August 10, 2003

I just happen to be in Chicago right now. I walked down the lakefront last night with my girlfriend. We noticed the carvings in the stone and checked a few of them out up close. Thanks for the link.
posted by sp dinsmoor at 7:53 AM on August 10, 2003

thanks for the this link! this place is a mere ten miles from my house, i'm flabbergasted that it is on the internet.
posted by eastlakestandard at 10:33 AM on August 10, 2003

They should have a link to Roadside Memorial, a photography project by Bill Sampson in which he documents the American tradition of descansos. The images are poignant and haunting.
posted by pineapple at 10:42 AM on August 10, 2003

Thanks for that link, pineapple - great site.

You may be interested in this site on Irish roadside memorials.
posted by plep at 11:05 AM on August 10, 2003

Good stuff as always, plep. While I couldn't be prouder that I live in The Roadside Genius State, I'm puzzled as to how this site managed to miss Wisconsin's plethora of bathtub Maddonnas and fibreglass animal statues. It is a puzzlement!
posted by MrBaliHai at 11:07 AM on August 10, 2003

MrBaliHai - those are great links. :) If I were you I'd let them know - maybe they'd like to link to them!
posted by plep at 11:13 AM on August 10, 2003

Good idea, but since that madonna site is actually from St. Cloud, Minnesota, not Wisconsin, I think I need to do a little more searching first...;^)
posted by MrBaliHai at 11:19 AM on August 10, 2003