Gary Olson creates this short video to introduce himself to potential friends on the Orkut social networking web site.
About this Blog
Though this is my personal web site, it is not about me.
You will not encounter my personal fears, existential anguish, or barely controllable rages. Rather this web site is about stuff I find interesting.
Now I guess I should warn you I have an an odd sense of what is interesting, so it might not appeal to you. But check it out anyway.
We might have similar tastes. The site is broken into Categories. Here are some of them.
Little Willie Poems – At the turn of the 19th century Edward Gorey wrote a book called “Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes”. It contains Little Willie poems that are wonderfully morbid. This is a collection of my favorites.
Facebook Friends – This a collection of some of the many friends I have made from around the world through Facebook.
Interesting People – These are people I find interesting. They aren’t necessarily famous interesting people, because those are boring. These are more like people who are doing interesting things.
Favorite Politicians – This is a collection of off-beat politicians I find interesting. I am one of the few people I know who follows politics because it is funny. That probably says more about my sense of humor than the state of the world.
So that is what this web site is about. If it sounds interesting, wander about. If you’re inclined, let me know what you think.
If you have any reactions, please feel free to send me a message. I’d love to hear from you.
Gary Olson, The Bearded One.
Welcome Video
This is a little video to welcome you to my web site.
In it I give a very brief introduction to what the web site is all about. For the most part, the real purpose is to give you a glimpse of the guy behind the scenes. I thought it would humanize the web site a bit.
Anne and Gary’s Christmas Video – 2009
Anne and Gary Olson talk about what happened in their lives in 2009 in their annual Christmas Video Letter.
Dogs should be useful.
Gary Olson explains why dogs should earn their keep.
Artist Inventor, Francis Gabe
Francis Gabe, inventor of the Self Cleaning House, was my mentor.
That might explain, in part, why some people consider me a tad eccentric. I had a good role model.
Francis was an amazingly creative artist, writer, and inventor.
She designed and built buildings out of scrape materials, created beautiful panel sculptures of dragons out of concrete, painted, drew sketches, made pots in her kiln, and, most notably, invented the Self Cleaning House.
When I was in my twenties I lived alone in a cabin in the rural outskirts of Newberg Oregon. Francis Gabe was my neighbor, my only neighbor.
We were both loners who did not particularly like or relate well with people. Fortunately we did relate well with each other. We both recognized our common estrangement from society, and that was our bond.
I eventually adapted to society by developing modicum of social skills and enough grasp of psychology to survive. Francis adapted by assuming the role of a minor celebrity.
For a time Francis was very popular with the media. She and her Self Cleaning House appeared on radio, television and in print. She was a guest numerous times on David Letterman, along with many other television talk shows.
Many articles were written about her and her inventions, including one in the New York Times. You can still find quite a bit written about her on the web. Much of that information is wrong, but it is consistent with what she wanted the public to believe.
Perhaps most interesting was a video done of Francis for the web site Weird American Video. Though the video makes fun of her, which I dislike, I have to admit it captures the essense of what made Francis Gabe so intriguing as a person. She is, without a doubt, the most interesting person I have ever known.
If you have a minute, watch the video. Pay particular attention to the house. She built the entire house out of cinder block and discarded materials … by herself.
This was thirty years before the recycling/rebuilding phenomenon took place.
Francis was always an original thinker and a woman ahead of her time. They don”t make them like that anymore.
Favorite Movies, Killer Klowns
Killer Klowns From Outer Space is a Gawd Awful movie.
None-the-less, I love it for it’s title, which, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is so ludicrous it makes me forgive everything else.
Killer Klowns was created by Stephen, Charles, and Edward Chiodo. They are three brothers who, as teenagers, made monster movies using a Super 8 camera. As adults they went their separate ways, but eventually reunited to create Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
If I am remembering correctly, they shot the whole movie is fourteen days.
The premise of Killer Klowns is that clowns from outer space invade a college town where they promptly begin killing local residents. The clowns shoot people with this gun that surrounds the victim in a ball of cotton candy.
Not necessarily a bad way to go.
They then take the human/cotton candy ball to their circus tent/space ship. There the balls age (as in decompose) until they are properly ripened. At that point the clowns stick a silly straw into the cotton candy cocoons and suck out the bloody gore.
You don’t get classier than that.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who has a twisted mind and is a connoisseur of the bizarre.
This is a truly bad movie.