Messing About in Boats, Boots, and Byways: Nautical ... Ironical

23 August 02: Darien Lake derelict -- Read the original post to this log and see the image full size.

    10 February 04: If nautical touches were confined to medium- to fast-food restaurants, there would be no such category as Nautical ... Ironical.

    However, our harpoons have become lampoons. And our bollards end up as baubles painted black, and huge anchors from the earlier days of Great Lakes shipping have become roadside ornaments.

    On an outing in summer 2002 to Darien Lake, an amusement park halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, I came up with an idea for a new category of images that plays off the Industrial Strength Dockware idea.

    Nautical ... Ironical features real-deal dockware and other nautical delights that have suffered a sea-change.

07 August 04: Master and Commander-- Twenty-foot-tall cartoonish captain trains his spyglass on the parking lot and beyond to Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Genessee River. The captain is part of the high-speed ferry complex; the ferry makes the two-hour trip to Toronto and back twice per day ...
13 March 03: A fish out of water -- There are several fish sculptures at Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA. Erie had fish for a civic outdoor art event, just as Buffalo had buffaloes ...
31 October 02: A dirty trick -- Someone living along the Erie Canal in the Tonawanda section has taken a perfectly good Six-Hour Canoe and filled it with dirt to make a flower box ...
30 September 02: Ontario Street fleet -- X marks the spot at the foot of Ontario Street on the Niagara River in the Black Rock section of Buffalo where this once noble nautical gem has fallen by the roadside ...
21 September 02: Making sport in Gasport -- Clustered poles protecting Gasport Guard Gate on the Erie Canal sport new white plastic hats ...
17 September 02: Lock stopper -- Historical steel-clad canalboat sits on a cradle at the Locks in Lockport, sundered from the water that bore it ...
17 September 02: Museum piece-- The locks at Lockport sport a tiny Canal Museum complete with a mondo-size life ring and a scupper to rival the Darien Lake Derelict ...
17 September 02: Anchor's away -- Anchor's away from the water and currently residing ornament-like in the grass on the Black Rock-to-Tonawanda bike path ...
17 September 02: Traffic stopper -- Standing alone in a sea of road signs, autos and trucks on a traffic island in Lockport, this recycled metal boat of the New York  Barge Canal Corp. no longer works on the Erie Canal ...
11 September 02: Old and in the way -- Bollards anchor the corner of a stately building on Niagara Street near our house. The setting may be ironical, but the two have a flawless coat of black paint ...
11 September 02: The sum is greater than the hulls -- Never saw a catamaran I liked until I saw this one Obersheimer's Sailors Supply on Niagara Street in Buffalo near our house...
02 September 02: Lock 32 roost -- Tour boat crew member roosts on a bollard at Lock 32 State Canal Park in Pittsford ...
28 August 02: Get the Point? -- A nasty little Personal Water Craft drifts up the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, PA, blissfully unaware of the irony of a huge barge and tug overtaking it ...