Through The Scanner Darkly

I finally replaced my scanner since moving last summer, and what's the first thing I scanned? Jesus! Well, really we first scanned a bunch of photos that Jackson took of our neighborhood garbage trucks (at his insistence). Then I scanned Jesus. Don't ask me why. Who knows why we subconsciously choose to replicate the things we did decades ago? Patterns: patterns of behavior; obsessions without explanations. And just a lot of crap that I wanted to archive, I guess. I found some of my old photos and postcards and thought they made a nice grouping. As always, Blogger has shrunk it all down here, so click on it for a closer look.

This first one was taken in a religious shop, back in the late 80s in Guadalajara. That centerpiece Jesus is impressively big. You would only purchase that if you ran a rather large church or cathedral. This looks a little like a car lot, doesn't it? (An icon lot?) And much of Mexico still worships what I call bloody Jesus. He's everywhere and quite realistic at times. I guess it's all that Azteca/Mayan blood-sacrifice history seeping through the long-ago enforced Christianity.

This won a photo contest at the Contra Costa Times, but one of the judges told me he he couldn't print it in the paper because they were afraid it would offend people. A whole bunch of bloody Jesuses for sale--offensive? Never! At least not in the households I frequented while growing up.


Here's something different. The exterior of the Dante's Inferno ride at Astroland, Coney Island. Astroland's future is up in the air, after being sold in 2006. For now, it's still open through 2008 and so is this ride. I would have ridden it at the time but I was there in the off-season. This was also taken in the 80s. I was probably working out some of my weird religious issues back then.


My favorite David Letterman bit was when he went to Coney Island with a videocam and asked people what they liked better, Dante's Inferno: the book, or the ride. A guy with a baseball cap and thick Jersey accent stared at him angrily and said, "Whatta ya talking about--BOOK? (gesturing behind him) It's a RIDE." Whoo, I'll say. That's worth the $4.

This next photo is NSFW. But if you walk by the Dante's Inferno ride, it's right there, being NSFW in your face. But if you're at Astroland, you're not actually at work, so I guess it's OK. And if you happen to work at Astroland, then it's definitely safe for work. I'm glad I worked that out in my head. What a book! What a ride!


Aaand we're back to Jesus. This is a 3D postcard I've had for years. I just wanted to see if my scanner could capture its lush essence. I've always liked that Jesus is praying amongst some sword ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata). It's nice to see him in a moist environment for a change.

I've never been able to decide who to send this postcard to. It doesn't really "match up" with any of my friends or acquaintances. It's very thick and heavy--does it need extra postage? If you received this in the mail, would it freak you out, if only to see Jesus in a rainforest-like setting? In 3D? Well, stay on my good side and you might be the lucky recipient.