Musee Mecanique...The Conclusion.

My last post about this awesome museum. Because I have been so 'relaxed' about posting, it seems to have dragged on a bit. (But I promise this last Musee post is good!)

This goes under the "What the @#$%*&?!" category. (Fill in your favorite curse word or substitution. I personally don't curse so my version says: What the H E double hockey sticks?!)

Apparently executions back in the penny arcade day were considered great fun for all. There were numerous machines where the theme was an execution. The only difference was the country and style of execution. (French Execution=Guillotine, EnglishExecution=Hanging,etc. )

The other unusual , but popular theme was drugs and drinking!

And now to wrap up this riveting expose, the cute film my daughter made!

What's up my sleeve...

I'm taking a break from my Musee Mecanique trilogy to show you what I've been up too. (Okay, you caught me...the real reason is my daughter is asleep and I have no idea how to upload her movie. Damn teenagers and their superior computer skills!)

First what I have not been up to:

Yes, you guessed it: cleaning!

These humiliating photos are of my work table or as I like to call it "Jamie Noel Studios" and my coffee table. My poor husband. This is so distressing to him! I am posting these photos in an attempt to shame myself publicly to the point that I will actually clean this mess up. (I'll keep you updated on the progress.)

The good news is when my house looks like this it means I am in a creative whirlwind. This is when I have a new design idea in my head and I can't do anything else until it is a reality. Correction: I can still do the fun stuff like eat and watch tv, just not the things that will hamper my creative streak. (i.e. clean house, exercise)

I am still having a love affair with these old circus images from my poster collection. I thought these ones looked like they would be plastered on the box cars of a circus train:

So of course I must now create a circus train to plaster them on. (See why I love creating designs?! It's like a little universe I can dictate. I love this...let there be more! I do not like that...you are banished forever! Mwah ha ha!)
So here are the box cars in progress:

The backside is the ad and on the inside I plan to create little scenes of the animals from the ad. (So there is a polar bear car, lion car, etc.) The front side will have bars like a zoo cage and I think they will need wheels. Of course they will need wheels. Wheels that really spin. That would mean little axles... well there goes my whole day!

I'm not sure if these will be chained together in a necklace or a bracelet? Any thoughts?

Musee Mecanique Part 2:The Fortune Tellers

As promised here is the second installment of my trip to the Musee Mecanique in San Francisco Ca. Coin operated fortune tellers have always been a popular feature at penny arcades. There is something truly unique about these machines that seems to capture the imagination.

The earliest fortune teller, Verbille, was made by the Mills Novelty Company. Verbille was a gypsy in the back of her wagon and had a phonograph player inside that would speak your fortune.

In the 1930's fortune tellers had motion; breathing, eyes moving, hand waving, head nodding, etc. They also vended a card with your fortune.

An extremely popular theme was a grandmother fortune teller. There were many variations including: Gypsy Grandma, Grandmother Predicts, Ask Grandma, and Horoscope Grandma.

My grandma made great hot chocolate and complained about assorted health problems, (real and imagined). I don't seem to remember her ever stopping mid sentence to go into a psychic trance or having premonitions of any sort, but then again I was probably too busy drinking my hot chocolate to notice. (It's chocolate for crying out loud. Don't even try to tell me that you've never been so caught up in trying to retrieve a piece of Dove dark chocolate, which you ingeniously hid in an air vent for just such a PMS emergency, that you accidentally caught a potholder on fire, set off the smoke alarm, and burned dinner. Yeah, feeling a little humbled now aren't you? I told my husband this happens to all women. I told him! He seemed to be under the illusion that these 'crazy situations' (his words, not mine) are exclusive to me and Lucille Ball. )

And now back to our regularly scheduled program:The Musee Mecanique had fortune tellers that dispensed cards, read your palm, and my daughter Taylor's personal favorite, The Zodi, which was an old fashioned type writer that typed your fortune as you watched, cut the paper, and shot it, (with amazing force!), out the side of the machine.

I have always loved these old fortune teller machines. They are obviously the inspiration for my Zoltar necklace. I suspect I'm not alone in this fascination as Zoltar has consistently been my most popular piece out of all my designs. (A close second is my Your Fortune Teller necklace.)

I wonder if these fortune teller machines could warn me of coming mishaps like potholders catching fire...

Actually, my 'womanly cycle' documented on a calender would probably do the trick.

Coming Next: The final installment of this spell binding trilogy... really weird machines.

And an adorable little film by my daughter, Lauren, of the Musee Mecanique. No kidding, it's really cute. Yes, I know I'm her mom, but I'm telling you it's cute. Not 'cute' as in the "of course you're attractive honey" sense of cute that all moms must abide to. We're talking honest to goodness cute as in 'this is a film made by my daughter' and yes, in a totally unrelated and independent way, 'this film is in fact cute'.

I'm telling you it's cute.

The Musee Mecanique!!!

Sorry for all the obnoxious exclamation marks, but I'm so excited about this post! (last one, I promise.)

I have been wanting to visit The Musee Mecanique for about a year now and I finally went on 4th of July.

The Musee Mecanique is a 'museum' of one of the largest private collections of restored and working penny arcade machines and other 'mechanical wonders' in San Francisco, Ca.

I say 'museum' because it is basically a big arcade you walk into (free-no admission) and can play on all these old machines. I must admit, if they were mine you would have to be screened, drug tested, racially profiled, finger printed, etc. before I would let you near my old machines. Then it would be just to look at them or perhaps a very trustworthy docent would put a coin in and show you how it worked.

Well, lucky for everyone, they are not mine, they are the private collection of the Zelinsky family. Edward Zelinksy started the collection and after his death his son Daniel, who shared his passion, now owns and up keeps the machines.

I took so many great pics and have so much to share that I will cover the Musee Mecanique over a couple of posts.

The most popular character you will find here is "Laffing Sal".

Laffing Sal is a six foot high paper mache automated lady that was made by the Philidelphia Tobggan Co. in the 1930's. She was used to draw crowds outside of fun houses and boardwalks. She laughs a high cackling laugh, shakes her body, and waves her arms.

Some people find her very creepy and others love her. I am quite fond of Sal, but my daughters both find her creepy. In the photo at the top of this post you can see my youngest daughter plugging her ears and closing her eyes as we walk into the entrance painted like Laffing Sal's head.

Another very popular machine is the wrestling machine which you may recognize from the first Princess Diary movie. Mia and her grandmother play this machine which is actually a scene filmed at the collections old home, in the bottom of the historic Cliff House.

(It was a hard battle, but I won.)

The new home for the Musee Mecanique is at Pier 45 in Fisherman's Wharf. It is definitely a great place to visit.

My next post will feature :

the fortune tellers! (one last exclamation mark is not gonna kill you.)