Tag: arizona

The Painted Desert

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Landscape on a 120 miles (190 km) long by 60 miles (97 km) wide canvas.

The Painted Desert stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park eastward to the Petrified Forest National Park (where these images were taken), with a large portion lying within the Navajo Nation.

Petrified Forest National Park, 1 Park Rd, AZ 86028

April 30th, 2019

Terracotta & Blue

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

Somewhere among the Antelope, Owl, Rattlesnake, and Mountain Sheep Canyons, the undulating formations of the sandstone so perfectly pleated like a Mariano Fortuny mythical gown, the warm colour palette that ranges from sand to pink to terracotta and blood orange, it occurred to me that I was at a loss for superlatives.

We toured with Adventurous Antelope Canyon because they were the only operators with a permit to tour into the Upper Antelope, Owl, Rattlesnake and Mountain Sheep Canyon. This means that whereas Upper Antelope is toured by five different operators and gets really crowded, we had the other three to our group only. That in itself was quite magical.

Slot Canyons of Page, AZ

April 23rd, 2019

The Mighty Wurlitzer of Mesa

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The Mighty Wurlitzer is a theatre organ of gigantic proportions, consisting of a console that rises from beneath the stage *queue dramatic music* and is connected to a roomful of pipes, bells, and assorted drums.

The theatre organ dates back to the early 20th century. Created by Robert Hope-Jones, it was originally known as a “unit orchestra” and was picked up by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of New York for distribution. It was used to compose the score of most films during the golden age of silent movies. After silent movies fell out of favor with audiences, some organs remained in their original theaters, but many were given to churches, museums, and other venues. [source]

The Wurlitzer in question sits in an appropriately gigantic room, where hundreds of people sit and enjoy pizza pies in an abundance of choice, listening to above mentioned dramatic music, accompanied by a light show.

The only other time we came across a similar organ, was in Macy’s Philadelphia – another unexpected location for an instrument of this size, but the Wurli-pizza-light show combination, is a spectacle that must be seen to be believed.

Organ Stop Pizza

Mesa, AZ

February 1st, 2019