Snowglobal

2010-12-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

Iowa! Or at least, a very interesting city in Iowa.

In lovely Elk Horn, IA, you'll find a windmill there. And it's a real one - built in 1848 in Norre Snede, Denmark. The citizens decided to bring it over in 1976 - let's hear it for a townhall meeting that friggin' gets things done. Now its stated as Iowa's Welcome Center, and its gorgeous. All of these globes came from the same gift shop.

Iowa also has cows and corn. It rules. Much thanks to Brent and Donna.

Gaudi

2010-08-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

Ryman Auditorium

2010-08-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Bangkok

2010-08-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

Intense.

Happy Birthday Dear Jesus

2010-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Again, too many narratives here. This is essentially about Christmas, right?

Las Vegas (Home of the White Tigers)

2010-07-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

So many narratives here it's impossible to even try.

Deadwood

2010-06-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

The town has been there forever but its been a tourist attraction from the recent, and awesome, show. My parents visited the town. Most of the original town burned down a long time ago so don't expect the film set if you ever go. The show was great, one of the most realistic depictions of the old west in movies (good television series with great stories are movies). Genre films like westerns and period pieces tend to clean things up too much. The best works remember that people were still people in other eras. Dialogue was rough and messy and vile. Prostitutes didn't look like Julia Roberts. Mining kept the town alive while destroying its citizens.

The globe is nice, though. It has the semi-popular subtitle, which really helps anyone who doesn't know why the town depicted exists. "Gold Rush 1876" reads "Wow, America", while the building inside looks nice and homey.

The other side gets some roughnecks in there. Wild Bill Hickok, badass gunfighter and gambling addict. Other side has a prospector, all noble and proud. Time makes myths.

The cards are what Hickok were holding when he got killed in a poker game. The aces and eights everyone agrees upon, but no one knows what the fifth card was, if he was still holding it. The nine of diamonds is from a local newspaper report.

And what I thought was a house is actually a saloon. Quaint!

I like how tiny the building is, with the gold snowing down. Feels real.

Space Needle

2010-06-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

I have two of these globes (still less than my globes of the Eiffel Tower), and cannot get any of those damn rings on the needle. Some globes have a built-in game, which could not have been made to actually work.

Titanic

2010-06-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Weird that its in water. From the travelling exhibit of memorabilia, which did a great job of telling the various human stories from the ship.

Hopefully the next film on the ship will be about Violet Jessop, who also survived the Olympic's hitting another ship and the sinking of the Britannic. Hardcore.

Big Ben - London

2010-06-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Once again, the lesson of the snowglobe - find the two most famous things about a city and pile them in. Helpful if one is a building and the other one moves. New design here - the magnet snowglobe.

Closer inspection shows this is actually a nice piece of art. The bus is 70s cartoony, Big Ben is stark and moody, and the best part - the halftone clouds.

La Brea Tar Pits

2010-06-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

If corporations don't start being humanist while making their money, we are gonna end up like these poor fuckers.

Rhode Island

2010-05-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

Grabbed this amazing guy in the train station in Providence.

Appropriately no snow with the crab, but some crazy blue goo.

Seattle

2010-05-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

I need to finish researching the water that goes in globes. Poor Seattle has run out.

Texas Snowman

2010-05-31T23:03:00.001-07:00

Let's face it - this is a great idea

The "TM" is a little overboard

Las Vegas

2010-05-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Lots of my money stuck in these damn things.

Worth every penny.

Canada

2010-05-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

At first I didn't understand it, so I bought it.

Wikipedia enlightened me:

"One of the national symbols of Canada, the beaver is depicted on the Canadian five-cent piece and was on the first Canadian postage stamp, the Three Penny Beaver. It is also the state animal of Oregon and New York, and a common school emblem for engineering schools, including the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as the mascot for Oregon State University and the City College of New York. The beaver also appears in the coats of arms of the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University and the London School of Economics."

Kentucky

2010-05-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Makes sense that they would have horses. But kickass sculpture and colors. Odd thing is I got this in the Cincinnati airport. Official state flower is Goldenrod, roses are the official horse race flower. Doesn't really matter, just interesting.

FYI there is a great documentary called JOCKEY on dvd, find it.

The Capitol Bldg

2010-05-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

I start to lose track of globes when I have mulitples from the same city. I think I have 4 from D.C. but of all different buildings. This is where Congress meets, not the geographic center of the city but where the quadrants of the city are divided. Probably some freemason stuff at work there. There was a competition for the design, lots of things got changed in the original construction, its been burned by the English, bombed and attacked over hundreds of years. They also passed some important laws inside. And the interior walls have some beautiful art and design on them.

So far all the D.C. globes have stars for snow.

Sundance Channel

2010-05-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

I think all TV channels should have snowglobes. If it makes total sense with the snow.

Rehoboth Beach

2010-05-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

I can't get enough of the critter globes. These, I believe, are sea lions.
The base sculpture is pretty incredible as well.

Utah

2010-05-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

If you don't know, it's the "Bee State." Thus the trippy bee hive.

I got a job there in 2001, I moved into a studio apartment in November. The building was old, from the 1910s, and was therefore both beautiful and a little beat up. The heating system was the old style metal radiator, visually pleasing but with no thermostat. It was just on, all the time, blistering hot. So I would leave a window open. The snow would storm in, melting about a foot from the window, keeping the air perfect. Snowglobe room.

Mt Saint Helens

2010-05-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Mt Saint Helens exploding into the air and into kid's minds. A volcano was one of the big things to study and dream about, as I was 10 years old. Science fiction was a daily concern. Between Yellowstone Park, the first "Alien" film and the Bermuda Triangle, all you wanted to do was run away from home and become an adventurer.

We didn't go to the volcano, and I have no idea how we got this. My Dad is a great guy for pulling this out of the air, so to speak. This is also timed well for the Icelandic volcano that cannot be spelled.

Here is how it looks when it shakes. 30 years and the ash still packs a cloud.

Empire State Building

2010-05-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

The strange thing with this one is, I think I got it in Albany, not New York City. I looked all over Albany for, well, a snowglobe from Albany. But no dice. Although its a kickass...

...ripoff. Guessing that neither owner of King Kong nor the building made this. And I could be wrong, but I really think I got this in the Albany airport. I love it.

It only gets better on the base. The big apple! Taxis! Yep this is homemade.

Corn Palace

2010-05-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

In one single week, this amazing building will have both an optimum fighting championship and a high school graduation. It won't snow though.

2010-05-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

A great gift for a great gift.

The resemblances aren't even close, but that cake looks incredible. We don't need towels or blenders, we need snowglobes.

I Am So Proud of (Snow)

2010-04-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yessss, homemade globes.

I was visiting Don Hertzfeldt and his animation stand and was lucky enough to catch him before he sold all his limited edition snowglobes of the character Bill, who first appeared in Don's short film EVERYTHING WILL BE OK. These drawings are from the follow-up film, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.

Bill old:

Bill young:

(It's one snowglobe, double-sided.)

Don's shorts have always been extremely minimal, and funny-somber. But his last couple of films have a lot of humanity too. The stick figures are deceptively simple, a representation of ideas and things in a small package, done in a way that you can put your own fears and desires onto them. Pretty great.

Also, I just described snowglobes.

Lucky Dome

2010-04-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Lucky Dome!!!!

I don't know what kind of luck it brings you, but feels like it should have multiple exclamation points.

Wall Drug

2010-04-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Never mind the globes with gnomes, potato people, aliens, even the AT-AT Walker - This has to be the most unique. A dinosaur (I believe a brontosaurus) in front of a drug store, in water and snow, with "Wall Drug" sign looking like this was mass produced and each store could get their name on it. AMazing. I also like the oval shape quite a bit, the blue background and white trim are incredibly pleasing to the eye.

Water is starting to evaporate out of it, or maybe they always wanted the bronto to be peeking out? If this was mass produced I haven't seen another, although I'm sure a trip to the internet will prove me wrong and that's too disappointing. But it does make sense that a pharmacy would want to get into the hearts and minds of children, who all love snowglobes and dinos and will need cough syrup at some point in life.

Special thanks to Carson, who decided that this would be more appreciated in my collection than in his bathroom.

Dubai

2010-04-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

I don't have many rules for the snowglobes, other than they are bought in the location they exist. No eBay. Ah, and if its in a Goodwill, then its ok, as that's saving the snowglobe from the trash. I buy a lot but friends buy me just as many, like donating a Van Gogh to the Met.

So when my friend Patrick went to Dubai to work the film fest there, it was a no-brainer to want to bring back a snowglobe from a place that has no snow. So he picked up this beautifully handpainted gem.

Alas, airports hate art. Don't let the art on the walls there fool you. The rules in the security line stop any liquid over 3 oz. Makes sense. However, even the tiniest globe is stopped from passing. Why? Its less than 3 oz. but security doesn't let you take it through, and doesn't have a reason to give you. (Hint: if the airport sells snowglobes -before- the security line, you should wait until after to buy one.)

This is where Patrick comes in. The airport not only tells him that he must put it in his checked luggage, where it could break even with fragile care, but as he is arguing the finer points of it being less than the liquid limit, they throw it in the trash can.

If there is a hero in the snowglobe world, it is Patrick. Not only did he somehow avoid being arrested (a possibility presented to him) but he went into the trash can and saved the globe. He put it in his backpack wrapped in something, I have to ask him again what, then checked the bag, and went back through security. This is the James Bond of snowglobes.

Berlin Wall

2010-04-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Since I missed posting this on the 20th anniversary last November, I'll post today to commemorate the nuclear treaty signed between the U.S. and Russia. There is no snow, no water, not even a globe, but a piece of an infamous wall and some so-so designed pins represent the city as good as any winter scene. If you saw a little piece of wall under glass from across the room, what would you guess it was?

I should be less interested in this, as these pieces are for sale everywhere in Berlin in true tourist trap fashion. Alas, the pure emotion from the fucking wall falling is too huge to deny. And here it is, an actual piece.

In other cold war news, there was a report that California might have a Ronald Reagan holiday. Will the Hollywood Blacklist be part of the celebration?

Florida

2010-04-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

The best thing a snowglobe could hope for is a city or state with such an incredible icon that you could see it across a house or store and know what place is being represented. Gators = Florida, I'm sure you know. Looks like he is having fun. And it fits into the critter vibe, holding a couple of little gators, that of course love to play on a see saw, another snowglobe facet I'm learning about.

Hansel and Gretel

2010-04-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

Winter scenes - I didn't think about it now, but I've only been obsessed with snowglobes as fairy tale representations of cities or places, boiling down an entire metropolis to a few buildings, or a beautiful small town to a tourism icon. When you break it all down, its also just a winter scene, since you got the snow in there. This one, devoid of place, but heavy on fairy tale (woods, kids, birds, Dutch hats) is a Hansel and Gretel acid vibe....creepy cool.

2008-07-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

Earthquake!!

5.8 - all the globes survived.

but imagine my dismay when i realized that all the snow in all the globes could have been going, at once.

next quake i will have my camera ready.

2008-06-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of the critter globe - some creature holding the snowglobe, breaking down the fourth wall. Seems to always be a mother holding a baby too. Its a little Sasquatch-esque, which is a plus.

Snow in this one is glitter, coz it doesn't snow down under, right? Heck, its July and its snowing right now.

2008-06-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Built in marshy swamp, inspired by some of its employees, it would have been great to have muck floating around in this globe. But that seems defeatist. The buildings in the city are really beautiful and the landscape could double for a Rome snowglobe.

In DC it has snowed only nine times in recorded history on Christmas, including about an inch in 2002. That's snow in the air, not the ground. But the snow in this globe is actually stars (perfect), hearts (huh...), moons (er....) and music notes (whaaaaaat?). Apparently snow by committee.

As the globe declares "Washington D.C." the inside is just the White House. This makes me think of other cities with a single landmark - Eiffel Tower, Seattle's Needle, Empire State Bldg, Hollywood sign - what would a DC globe look like if it reflected the town itself?

2008-06-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

SANDglobe. Total genius. While many globes are standard city settings, this one raises the bar by offering what Arizona actually has - sand and snakes. Doesn't make for good shaking but that's ok.

To be fair, in 12 years of living in Arizona, I remember only seeing one snake. But they were out there, everyone knew. Rattlers. I never knew anyone bit by one. My boss did step on a scorpion that was in his bedroom though. The smaller they are the more deadly, or at least the more "venom" or whatever scorps got. The hospital didn't know what to do (!) so they gave him a tetnous (sp) shot like he had stepped on a rusty nail. A mean, six-legged nail with pinchers.

My other Arizona globe does have snow against the cactus. It snowed twice while I was living there, once in December, once on Easter Morning. Freaky but gone by 11am.

2008-06-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

At first I thought I should only collect globes of places I've been. Then I realized I'm poor and can't actually travel to some great places. Let's pretend I'm collecting art. Look at this couple, on a freaking see-saw. Holland must be incredibly laid-back.

2008-05-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

At first it seemed like a way to advertise a city, and capture a place and time of neighborhoods, buildings and landmarks, regardless of whether or not it actually snowed there. Complete nostalgia, but deeper than that, a view from above of what a city stood for. But with today's digital age, anyone can make a snowglobe. Even of a fucked up clown that must have gone from gift box to Goodwill in record time. Love it.

2008-05-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

The bear is holding a sign that says "I am not a bear" and is wearing antlers. But how strange is the hidden "Canada" sign to the left? Some secret response to draft dodging, hiding in the woods like animals? Or just my parents went to Canada and all I got was this snow globe.

I remember two vivid learning experiences with bears. Smokey the Bear was a real hero, lovable and smart, with quick and effective commercials telling me to never start a fire. I trusted that deep narration the way I trusted movie trailers. I would never want to burn him up, so I always knew how dangerous forest fires were. That campaign worked. Even though every 4th of July I would torch any other insect on the ground, that was far from any forest.

The other time was at Jungle Habitat. It was a wide-open, drive-thru zoo in New Jersey, run by Warner Brothers from 72-76. You would stay in your car and drive through these open areas where animals roamed. Its psychotic to think of now. But incredible for children - you are in the backseat and a lion is walking up to your window, licking it. Ostriches came up and ate the rubber lining on the doors. And bears would sit on the hood of your car, totally fucking it up. Too bad human, Jungle Habitat is not responsible for damages. (Although they did pay a few maimed customers.)

Wikipedia doesn't list bears being there - but I just knoooooow they were.

And speaking of Canada - there is a similar zoo there still open.

2007-04-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

Chicago is going for the "we have a hell of a lot of buildings" approach. Smaller cities try to stick with a single building or iconic image. My globe from Rochester, NY, has a skyline that's pretty weak, screaming "come try our chesse sandwiches." But look how much is packed into Chicago. It must be a bustling city. I'm going again this summer and can't wait to see all these places.

Is the giant ferris wheel still there? Or was that for some 19th-century exposition?

2007-04-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

Classic - "We need to pick ONE thing to represent our state to the rest of the world." Could be penguins with the big movie craze. Could be oil or polar bears. But they stuck to the real deal. We are only in this state because we want to get rich, filthy rich. America baby.

2007-04-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Scarecrow my parents gave me around Halloween I think.

Parents 2, Trevor 1.

2006-08-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

What else would you expect from Vegas? It's perfect. No buildings or monuments. And the strange combination of dice and roulette shows the sweet naivety that tourist centers thrive on.

2006-08-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

For Halloween my Mom sent this, the standard for cool new globes. Haunted house on the hill, with trick-or-treaters, pumpkins, scary trail all on the heavily designed base. Inside the snow is actually tons of bats (see photo #2).

On the bottom there is an on-off switch. When on, a screaming laugh goes off at any nearby sound. Fun for a while.

Trevor 1, Parents 1.

2006-08-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Other countries have different ideas about snowglobes. Looks like better ideas. My friend Trevor got this innnnnn Bali I think. Genius use of the elephant twice, baby in the globe. Iconic and you don't even know where it's from by looking at it.

This also starts the competition between Trevor and my parents with Trevor in the early lead.

2006-08-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

The town I was born in. Notice the total lack of personality, basic cityscape and no additional statuettes. It screams, "Come and enjoy our grilled cheese sandwiches." Ah, Rochester. I haven't been back since I was 1, so I don't really know much about the town. Looks cold.

2006-08-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Paris. I haven't been but bunch of friends have. I just read that the first snowglobe was made in Paris for the International Exposition in 1889, of the Eiffel Tower. Later they became a mainstay of American roadsides and airports.

Nothing against that tower, but I wonder what other buildings are in globes there.

Dropped the one and it broke. The glass was really brittle, like the cheapest, thinnest material ever to hold water. The glitter seemed standard. No discernible smell.

2006-08-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

Whenever my family went on trips we had to drive because we had dogs. But they made every trip better. Stop at a scummy rest stop? Dog happy. Weather bad? Dog happy. Wild moose attack? Dog happy.

My parents dog Bogie died from old age this week. She got to explore Montana last month though. Lucky dog.

2006-08-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I drove upstate to see friends and while driving I realized I collect snowglobes. This one has a trolley car that moves inside.

2006-07-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

One summer in between 7th and 8th grade, before I moved to AZ, me and my parents went to the Grand Canyon. I bought a cassette of Motley Crue's "Theater of Pain" and was convinced I was the first kid in my school to own the tape. I thought anything from Arizona was cool. We came back and I wasn't the coolest, everyone had the record. And it sucked.

Let's admit it: this is not the most powerful followup to the At-At Walker. But this style has a lot going for it. Traditional snowglobe, half-circle, with 1)interchanagable plastic representations of city/state, and 2) background. This would show that 1)cactus and 2) desert are vital to understanding Arizona. And by having a traditional structure, you have an easy way to compare and contrast each city/state.

I lived in Tucson for 12 years and this is exactly how it was. Great little city.

2006-07-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

I used to live in a closed down bar. My friend and his wife bought the building in downtown Los Angeles for a great deal. It was 5,000 square feet and they converted half of it into a loft-style art work space and living area, completely ripping out the sickass bathroom stalls and floor and making a normal bathroom and shower. They left the other half as a bar, in order to rent the space to films and commercials.

I paid them a little rent and took my TV and futon and lived in the center of the bar. It was weird, go out to a tiny bar, then come home to a bar three times as big, and wake up every morning - in a bar. Leather booths, wood paneling, inflatable blimp for the super bowl. Lived there 4 months. After I went and stayed in a hotel for work for one month, the joy of living in a bar was lost on me. I moved out and got a real apartment.

When we moved in to the bar, I noticed this snowglobe. My friend who bought the place has a friend who worked in special effects on the Episode One movie. And this was his Christmas “bonus” after the movie came out and was a big success. A snowglobe. He gave it to my friend and quit his job. Now it’s mine.

Has a wind-up function that moves the XYZ-wing fighter in a circle around the AT-AT Walker and plays the movie theme.

2006-07-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

I don't remember which globe I got first. But this seems like a good one to start with. Dad went to Roswell for work. Pretty much everything I could hope for in a globe. Something unique inside, glitter, and fancy design on the base. Although Roswell has about the most unique theme you are gonna get out of a town.

My friend Bill Brown made a film about Roswell, named 'Roswell', in which he theorizes that the crashed spaceship was a teenage alien on a joyride. So, its cool that my Dad bought this.

2006-07-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

At some point after 30 (a traditional and pathetic "once upon a time" beginning for my generation), I started collecting snow globes. I thought it would be interesting collecting a piece of Americana that is traditional enough to be found literally everywhere, even outside the country, yet each globe is different in every town. You can even find them in places where it does not snow. Sad and fascinating.

By the way, all irony is lost, because I actually think these are cool. ALso note: no globe could be too cheap (as you can see here with shitty Santa), with Goodwill's discarded gems and Vegas-style tourist centers practically giving them away.

After a while friends and family saw I had a few and they started to buy me globes on their own trips.