On finishing The Heart of Darkness

Kurtz, Kurtz, to remember him it hurts
Few places is it worse to make a bungle
Than to do so in some godforsaken jungle.
To make your fortune in the Congo
And fall prey to the spear and the bongo
To make your way up that sinuous river
While tiny parasites attack your liver
Your beautiful life has turned to crud
And they bury you in some convenient mud.
Better for you to have stayed in Brussels
Than struggle with nature with all your muscles.

:)

West Allis in Wonderland

I went to the Wisconsin State Fair Saturday afternoon.  Unwilling as I am to pay for parking, I found a parking space about a mile away to the west of the State Fair Park in West Allis and walked.  (The only Allis I can find in the Milwaukee area, since there is no Allis or East Allis)

I was going to use my bicycle to cover the distance from where I parked, which was 102nd street and Greenfield and the park which is about 85th and Greenfield, but my rear wheel was not only flat but apparently needed an inner tube replaced.  The air would escape about as fast as I was pumping it in. 



I see the used car lot here switched to CFL's.  I wonder how they perform outdoors in all weather.


So I walked the relatively uninteresting neighborhood of West Allis.  There is St. Aloysius Catholic Church with a large statue of St. Aloysius on the side, there is a porn video shop, a Christian bookstore practically across the street, a Teamsters Union Hall, a Brewery Workers Local hall, a place to learn Tae Kwon Do, several bars, a day care center,  and the Mama Mia Pizza parlor.   I had to wait for fifteen minutes or so in line at the ATM in the Walgreens across the street from the fair. 

The fair was its usual self.  The exhibition hall had people selling ginsu knives, scissors, sunglasses, neck massages, magic fingers recliners, really kitschy oil paintings,   miracle vacuum cleaners and brooms, huge jacuzzis complete with a sound system,  special beds, costume jewelry, tee shirts.  There was a Potowatami bingo hall with stylings by Al White on the hammond organ ( and for a moment I thought his neon sign said "All White" but I quickly saw that he was black.)  There were people walking around in black and white holstein costumes complete with udders and horns.  I should have taken their picture or maybe asked them to pose but the state fair is sensory overload and there was so much else to look at.  In the far corner there were little girls and boys on trapolines flying way high in the air on elastic wings. 

  This being Milwaukee of course there were plenty of places to get beer and live music was everywhere, most of it too loud, and not very good and for some reason live musical performances just don't do anything for me.   I gave in to temptation and bought a draft beer and then was faced with the problem of taking pictures with my right hand.  Pentaxes are not exactly point and shoot.   . 

Elvis is alive and performing in West Allis right now.

From the cotton candy, elephant ears, and corn dog stand district I went to the livestock barns and admired the hogs, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, cows, and clydesdales.   I saw people coaxing their milk cows back and forth from the milking parlors.  One guy was having a particularly hard time with his cow. 

He was clearly no match for the cow and the cow was of a contrary mind about where to go.  There were also duck and piglet races in a little grandstand area near another area that featured a tall undulating slide. 


The Ejection seat was not in the Midway section but was a spectacular experience if you don't mind a little whiplash

 Finally I went to "spin city", which featured a couple of acres of spectacular rides where people are swung and centrifuged and spun in the air by giant machines.  You could listen to all the teenage girls screaming for hours if you were of a mind to.  Most people looked like they were having a good time.  

There were also booths where you could shoot at targets, or fling rubber frogs into little ponds.  If you got the frog to land on the lily pads you got a stuffed toy.  I am not sure what people are supposed to do with their giant stuffed toys once they have them, but I saw lots of people wandering around with (for example) Scooby doo stuffed animals that were somewhat bigger than they were. 

   Other people were tossing rings to land on tops of empty coke bottles, or rings on the heads of rubber ducks circulating in pools of water.  Despicable me henchmen were popular this year, as were blow up effigies of Batman and Spider man, superman, space aliens and dolphins. 

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