The art of View-Master

We took a recent trip to Selma, NC, to visit their antique district. The town itself was a bit of antique, a portrait of what the world used to look like. It was a little unsettling to find it so apparently deserted on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but I guess if I lived there, I would take every opportunity to leave for more exciting venues.

The antique district itself was impressive - at least, to people like us it was impressive. We went with open minds and an open wallet, expecting - hoping, even - to find something to take home. Sadly, we found nothing except for a booth overflowing with an excellent collection of View-Master reels. I bought quite a few fantastic reels and, when we got home, I pulled out my existing collection and viewer and spent hours flipping through them.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll say it now: I love View-Master. I think it is an art form that is nearly totally lost. In the time I've spent writing this post, I have also done some cursory research on making your own reels, and it is still possible, although slightly expensive - $100-$200 for a working vintage camera, $40+ for a set of 6 blank reels (apparently they are no longer in production), $50 for a film cutter, plus the cost of 35mm slide film and the expense of having the film developed. It is intriguing - I am inspired to make the attempt, although I want to make sure that it is a potentially sustainable hobby. For example, if the blank reels are no longer available, I doubt if it is really worth the investment of hundreds of dollars to produce a half dozen reels.

At any rate, as fun and rewarding as that may be, my real joy is discovering old reels. I love the slight discoloration that they have. I love seeing the old cars, the old tourists in their old clothes (ankle-length skirts and suits and ties to see Yosemite!) frozen forever in time. But more than that, they are captured in 3-D. There's something very special about that. It is also amazing to see the clothing that is clearly from an era long-gone posed next to vistas that are practically unchanged.

I am very interested in a d.i.y. View-Master hobby, but it will certainly require some research. There are plenty of methods for creating 3-D images from digital photography as well as film, but making it a View-Master reel is something special.

Please enjoy some additional photos from Selma.

Paperback reader

Yesterday we found heaven. A library book sale! Unlike the Orange County library system, the Wake County libraries do not have a used bookstore. Instead, they save all of their old and excess books and blow them out in a gigantic sale! $1 paperbacks and $4 hardbacks... how can you resist? We obviously did not.

The smell is intoxicating - if you like books then you know. Old books, especially old paperbacks, have a certain earthy mustiness, dry and bitter but sweet at the same time. I do see the danger in this: we got rid of dozens of books - perhaps over a hundred - when we moved from Orlando, and here we are, just buying dozens more on a whim. But again - are $1 paperbacks really hurting anyone? I think we have found a new Fall tradition. And I think I'm not done. The sale is going on for the remainder of the weekend. I want to go back!

So this is what I'll be reading through the winter.

I like tea

Recently we have become obsessed with tea. Maybe not obsessed, exactly, but we are far bigger fans of it than we were before. I am a drinker - I like to drink things. I like to drink alcohol in pretty much all of its forms, and I like to be buzzed, but I don't like being drunk. I wish I could drink more alcohol before I got to the uncomfortable and unsafe stage. I like coffee too, and I appreciate the stimulating effects of the caffeine, but, as with alcohol, if I drink too much of it I start to feel... unsafe. My heartbeat speeds up and becomes irregular, I get jittery and paranoid and am more susceptible to wild moodswings.

So tea is the perfect drink for me. I can drink far more of it before I start to feel the effects of the caffeine, and when it does hit me, it is far smoother than coffee can provide. The problem is that tea isn't very good unless it's really good. So I can't drink just any old Celestial Seasonings or Liptons tea. In fact, I really prefer loose-leaf tea (we've tried as much high-end bagged tea as I feel is necessary). So here is another thing that we've lost before we knew what we had when we moved to North Carolina. By comparison, Orlando was crawling with tea shops. Our favorite was Infusion Tea on Edgewater. We went occasionally, but now, as tea-drinking vegetarians, we realize what a fantastic restaurant we can no longer visit. Honestly, all we have been able to find here is Teavana, which is okay, but not fantastic. I appreciate their apparent intention to bring loose-leaf tea to a mass audience, but the store feels like a Best Buy version of a tea shop. The salespeople have to hustle you for commissions and I feel like I'm being grifted.

If you live in a place with a local tea shop, I recommend that you go soon. Go and order a cup of oolong tea and a bowl of vegan chili. It's the perfect day for it.