The Accidental Sea

[Steve Dekorte]

http://youtu.be/otIU6Py4K_A

[Sam]

Thanks for posting that, Steve. I love that entire region, it is so worth the trip.

I just read this morning that the Salton Sea SRA is scheduled for closure in this year's state budget, along with 69 other state parks. That is such a damn shame... So many wonderful places, soon to be consigned to criminals and poachers. Feh.

The Salton Sea SRA is a birder's dream, and no trip down there is complete without a trip to Salvation Mountain and a cruise through

Slab City

Slab_City

. I hope to be back down there in the fall. This is a picture I took last year near Salvation Mountain.

[starrysothoth]

Yet another apocalyptic shrine I never knew existed. Thanks for sharing!

[Karnos]

Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Cheev

A beautifully haunting vid. I even enjoyed the strangely depressing 50s infomercial. Only blighted by the hideous eyesore of Salvation Mountain and the last disgusting line "Here but for the grace of god...."

Agree. Someone should bulldoze that filth, but anyway, the poor man seems to have placed all of his spirit into building that horrid monstrosity, and I too do not understand why he felt like throwing that God line into the video, but anyway...

[gveranon]

I don't know. Looking at it anthropologically, the eccentric guy who put so much work into his cheesy religious edifice seems no more out of place than those who decades ago turned the area into a tawdry resort and eagerly tried to transplant suburbia into the desert. Just another entry in a history of absurdity and folly. Actually I find that old weirdo, living out there among the ruins, more endearing and likeable than the herd that came and went. I wouldn't expect someone like him to have a firm grip on reality. I'd actually like to know more about him.

But I agree that the film would have been better without the narrator's pathetic "there but for the grace of God" comment, and possibly without some of his other comments about the moon, post-apocalyptic whatever, hell or heaven, and so on. The narrator has a good voice. If he had just described what is there and the history of the place, it have been powerful enough.

[Sam]

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon

I don't know. Looking at it anthropologically, the eccentric guy who put so much work into his cheesy religious edifice seems no more out of place than those who decades ago turned the area into a tawdry resort and eagerly tried to transplant suburbia into the desert. Just another entry in a history of absurdity and folly. Actually I find that old weirdo, living out there among the ruins, more endearing and likeable than the herd that came and went. I wouldn't expect someone like him to have a firm grip on reality. I'd actually like to know more about him.

His name is Leonard Knight, and his story is here. I've talked with him briefly, and he is a truly nice guy. He gave me a few items related to the mountain, including a jigsaw puzzle and a piece of painted adobe. He never mentioned religion, which I thought was odd, given the theme of his art. I also got to pet his cat.

I am certainly not a Christian of any sort; I have never read the Bible, (except for Revelations, because it has cool monsters), and you will only find me in a church for weddings or funerals. But that does not keep me from appreciating Salvation Mountain as an amazing piece of artwork, and Leonard Knight as an odd outsider with a kind heart.