Author Archives for nancy wisser

Chicago Planetarium Stonehenge(s): All About the Sky

photo from  Prashanth Sriram’s photostream on Flickr

The website of  Chicago’s Adler Planetarium says, “As visitors approach the exhibition, they are greeted by a full-size replica of a familiar giant stone monolith from Stonehenge.” Do we forgive them for using the word monolith where trilithon is the correct term? We’ll think about it.

But they do have this rather nice depiction of a piece of that ancient megalithic circle we all know and love. We don’t know what it’s made of, but we’re guessing fiberglass. It  looks a little like a movie set Stonehenge.

Plenty of planetariums have some form of Stonehenge replica (remember Kuala Lumpur?), but we’ve had our eye on Chicago for a while because of the structure on the left, entitled America’s Courtyard, an outdoor stone spiral that some people refer to as Stonehenge. (Photo by Mike Boehmer) You can read more about this public sculpture here at the sculptors’ page. (Please forgive them their typos. They are Brazilian, and English is not their first language.) Here’s another page about it, and a photo of it in the snow.

We’ve always liked that sculpture and couldn’t work it in (not hengy enough!)  until we found the photo at the top. Of course, Chicago is better known for its remarkable sculpture Cloud Gate. If you visit, we recommend seeing both!

But back to the trilithon, which now seems rather mundane. We’re giving it 5½ druids. We’re glad the planetarium is helping to keep people Stonehenge conscious. It’s as if trilithons were big staples for stapling the sky to the landscape. Oh, those ancients–they worked in big cubicles!

Stonehenge (Or is that Stone Henge?) Candle Holder

photo from Zen Ideas

Remember that snow globe we posted a few days before Christmas? This appears to be its second cousin, with trilithons based on the same model, just enlarged and moved around a bit. And it comes in what appears to be an identical box.

We can’t seem to wipe away the impression that what we have here is a mommy trilithon, a toddler trilithon and a few little trilithon buds. Drink your candle wax, kiddies, and one day you’ll be big like Mum! And yet the whole thing has its charm. That grassy lip around the candle works to make it look like a secret pond surrounded by megaliths, the kind of thing you wouldn’t mind having in your garden.

This can be seen as a reductionist view of Stonehenge, a minimal version of the circle, just enough to satisfy the casual Stonehenge fan who wants to tuck a reminder of the ancient and the ages off on the desk corner. Someone’s taken the time to make the resin stones stone-ish and aged looking. (There’s something bugging us about those three front stones, however, but we can’t quite put our finger on it.)

All in all, an amusing Stonehenge-thing, if taken with a wink. Score: 5½ druids. And the name IS Stonehenge, by the way. No space in the middle and no capital H. If it had been named in the 1990’s of course, it would be StoneHenge, but for now English Heritage is sticking with the old spelling. We quite approve!

A Little Stonehenge, a Cucumber, and Eleven

photos by Somara aka snarkygurl, with permission

[Strictly speaking this is not a Stonehenge replica, but a replica of a Stonehenge replica. The rare clonehenge clone!]

What a movie! What a cake! The movie This Is Spinäl Tap made the Stonehenge replica a household idea. We’ve often wondered what percentage of the 250 and counting posts we’ve put up would be here if it weren’t for Spinal Tap. Well, there is no doubt about today’s entry!

The baker/artist and photographer writes: “A friend of ours wanted to surprise her husband with a Spinal Tap cake for his birthday. She didn’t care what it looked like, so I had free reign to do what I wanted. I like it, other than the part where I accidentally made the strap too long, and where I lost the wrestling match with the white frosting.”

Well, we think she did an excellent job. Even got that cucumber-wrapped-in-tinfoil in there although much reduced in size!

And, speaking of reduced in size, our focus is, of course, the little Stonehenge replica, a trilithon, actually. We like the way the colouring on it is marbled to make it look like stone. It is very nicely done. Plus, it looks delicious. We hope it was.

Please note that the dials on the amp do say 11. That’s one higher! By the way, you can see our other posts concerning Spinal Tap here and here.

Score: 5 druids. It’s not much smaller than the one in the movie, after all. And we’re guessing Somara had a lot less money to work with. It’s not easy to get this kind of likeness in an edible replica. Nicely done!

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Hello, Cleveland! Tremont Henge

photo by Jeremy Wiggins aka zodar, with permission

As Spinal Täp said, “Hello, Cleveland!”

“There’s nothing wrong with Ohio, except the snow and the rain. I really like Drew Cary and I’d love to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!“* And now, folks, from the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, also known as the Best Location in the Nation and the Mistake on the Lake, Ohio’s first entry to our large permanent replica list! It just barely makes it in both the large and permanent categories, but we like Ohio. Cleveland Rocks! (And isn’t there a hellmouth there?)

As we see it, this modest henge can’t be more than 2 miles from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There is certainly a good chance it was Spinal Tap inspired. But its true importance to us is as a demonstration. How many people wonder what to do with that odd bit of green between the sidewalk and the street? (Except in Seattle where they pack them with riotous flower gardens.) Here’s the perfect answer: build a henge!

Your neighbors will finally know you’re as weird as they thought, and the local baby-eating pagans  will have a place to perform their dark rituals! (Oops, OPAN, a pagan group not far away takes issue with that–their website clearly says, “not eating your babies since 1996“.)

A grass strip henge doesn’t have to be elaborate. Here they’ve gone with a couple of trilithons and a few standing stones, but it makes a  statement. Of something. Right? Okay, we’ll get back to you on that. But the point is, think how property values must have soared! People were probably on the verge of moving away, especially after the Indians got rid of their best players. Then someone’s brave henging saved the day! (We’re just speculating here, but how could we be wrong!? Just look at that henge.)

Score for Tremont henge? We’ll give it 5½ druids. We thank zodar for this great find. If he or anyone else gets further information on this, like who built it, how, when or why, please let us know. Honestly, what gets into people?

*(from the song Ohio, by Bowling for Soup)

Note–our next entry hasa Spinal Tap connection, so stay tuned.

Strawhenge: When You’re Ready to Bale!

photos from the website of the Dry Stone Wall Association of Canada, with permission

“Strawhenge is a conceptual installation of large straw bales constructed to celebrate the relationship between the momentary and the monumental.” So begins the text on the website for this straw Stonehenge replica. Strawhenges are among the most common large henges, and we haven’t been posting each one we find. But after reading this website we suspect we have stumbled upon some kindred spirits, and since we haven’t posted a straw or hay henge for a while, here it is! (Others: Strawhenge in Essex and Straw Echo Henge, and a great one we never got photo permissions for *sigh*, Strohhenge.)

It is tempting to quote large swaths of text and, well, we’ll indulge a little. John Shaw Rimington is quoted, “when looking over a field of large bales in a field. ‘It is compelling,’ he says ‘to imagine that these large objects, dotted all over the landscape, are not just dropped haphazardly behind baler machines, but rather, they have been carefully moved into position to conform to some greater planetary design.’ ”

The text continues: “He goes on to point out that, a universal and intriguing sense of purpose and meaning lies in each one of us, and is needing to be awakened. Strawhenge is a whimsical structure that allows the onlooker to yield to this tendency to see a field of large bales as something of a phenomena. The common is allowed to seem unusual. The familiar rural landscape becomes infused with newness and significance again. The relationship of the temporary, as represented by the straw, and the permanent, as implied by the ‘stone-likeness’ of the large standing bales, creates a powerful contrast.”

Oh, people, this is our kind of talk! It’s so fun to talk about the nonsensical in serious cosmic ways, because it’s laughable at first, but upon further cogitation has glimmers of truth. When you see a Stonehenge replica, you know someone was reaching for something, one of those deep-inside things we don’t believe in, let alone understand. And at the same time, let’s face it, they’re being very silly. People at play.

It is pleasant to note that someone did indeed look at pictures of Stonehenge and attempt to reproduce some aspects of its present condition here. The inner trilithon horse shoe does face the uprights supporting the three remaining adjacent lintels. And the north-south orientation matches Stonehenge’s, we’re told. We give points for that.

Score: 8 druids! They earned that last half druid when they wrote the site text. Nicely done! Thank you, Mr. Shaw Rimington, for getting in touch with us. We approve whole-heartedly of your conceptual art installation and find it outstanding in its field.

Har har.

P.S.: Hey, Brits, send in your snowhenges. We know they’re out there! Other citizens are welcome, too.

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Granite Henge, Polperro, Cornwall

photos from PolperroCornwall.com, with permission

A new one for our list of large permanent replicas and our second henge in Cornwall (see Stonehenge in Treave and More Photos from Treave), this one may not be a Stonehenge replica in the strictest sense of the word. It is, for example, not round. Still, with its trilithon construction, with standing stones added to create an enclosure, we think it comes within the scope of this blog. And since this blog is a dictatorship, what we think is all that matters!

And anyway, it’s charming, in that way that Cornwall and other places known as holiday destinations tend to be. Granite Henge, in fact, is the name of the complex of twelve holiday cabins that surround this henge garden and the adjacent swimming pool. We’re told that a local builder, Derek Bishop, built the property and created the garden, using native Cornish granite to make the henge, in the early 1980s.

The garden is planted with many tropical and subtropical plants and sports a peacock or too, as well. Not much like Salisbury Plain, we must admit, but a fun environment for enjoying a henge! We could certainly be talked into staying there. Let’s hope the warm-climate plants survive this brutal winter!*

Score: 6 druids. This is fun and it looks like art to us!

*In an email, Kevin from Polperro says: “What weather??? I live in Florida from September to April. Looking forward to a picnic on the beach tomorrow.” Anyone have plane fare?

[Note: We’re now up to 60 large permanent replicas! Not only did we add this one, but we got word of a very nice little replica on the grounds of the new public library in the city of Pattaya, Thailand. (We’re seeking a photo for a post.) Since there was already a replica in Nong Nooch Gardens near Pattaya, that bit of Thailand is now the smallest area we know of in the world to have two large permanent Stonehenge replicas. There’s a bit of trivia for stumping your friends. And you heard it here at the Clonehenge blog!]

Stent Henge–and A Happy 2010 to All!

photo from ADAMANT, used w/o permissions–permission pending

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers! The first henge of the year is one that will be hard to top. It’s made of stents of the sort used to prop open coronary arteries. The copy accompanying it reads:

“A reader reports one of his dearly departed co-workers spent a great deal of time creating a scale model in stents of Stone Henge. Stent Henge was created with pieces of scrap Nitinol self expanding vascular stents embedded in cured Sylgard 184 elastomer. It is a nearly perfect reproduction of the layout of the famous stone circle in England in a compact package just about the perfect size for a paper weight. It took nearly a year of work during slow periods. ” [links added by us]

We wonder, how do you even do something like this over a year? Do you add the clear silicone slowly, layer by layer? We don’t know, but the outcome is impressive and accurate. See the section that has retained its lintels? And the inner trilithon horseshoe?

Whoever made this used a photo of Stonehenge as it stands today as a guide. Perhaps he kept it in his chamber–or maybe he knew it by heart! I suppose we shouldn’t go on in that vein. (Don’t beat us!) Heh. Our New Year’s resolution is to actually be funny. Wish us luck!

Score: 7½druids. It’s made of unusual materials, and someone has taken pains to make it accurate. That’s what we like here in Clonehenge country. Posthumous kudos to the builder of this eccentric beauty!

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A Cakehenge for Morris Dancers

photos by Cricket Holman, used with the permission of Greenwood Morris

Out upon the green plain, wild horses galloped and played. If they noticed the huge lichen-encrusted stones that huddled in an ageless circle there, it was only to rub their shoulders or haunches now and then or to play hide-and-seek with those small colts still unable to run far. They took no interest, either, in the line of posts or strange piles of sweet white goo distributed about the area.

Hmm . . . it’s hard to make that work! We’re not sure why the horses, why the odd asymmetrical candle line or what the (possibly marshmallow) lumps are that are scattered about this cake. And then there’s that thing in the upper left hand corner. Many mysteries.

We do know this cake was made for a birthday party in November, 2008, a party attended by members of Greenwood Morris, a Morris Dance team out of Gainesville, Florida. More photos of the party may be seen here.

Score: a modest 5 druids. Tis is a rather simple henge, appropriate for the occasion. You don’t have to do anything elaborate in order to enjoy a henge at your next family, social or business occasion. Let henging in and watch your quality of life soar!. And absolutely no calories (as long as you don’t eat it).

[Cyndi Moncrief adds in an email: BTW, the marshmallow thingys on the cake are “Blancmanges”, made famous by the Monty Python skit of the same name.]

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Snowglobe Time!

photos, slightly modified, from Stonehenge Collectables, with permission

Last year on Christmas we posted a photo of the English Heritage Stonehenge snowglobe, the one sold in the shop near Stonehenge. So it seems fitting as the holiday approaches to post another snowglobe somewhat less official, but certainly modeled roughly after Stonehenge, as proven by the trilithons and the packaging, which includes this bit of art:

There can be no doubt that is Stonehenge. As Bob at Stonehenge Collectables says, “Had the graphics artist who produced the artwork for box and label created some stones graphically and not used an identifiable view of Stonehenge taken from the south, looking north, any commercial connection to Stonehenge could be disavowed.” True except, as we said, for the trilithons, which you won’t find in any other ancient stone circle we know of.

We’ll give this 5½ druids, partly for that little walkway spiraling up the base toward Stonehenge. It would be six if they’d used something white instead of that clear plastic glitter. Don’t they know that’s for unicorns?

We”ll end with this photo of last year’s and this year’s globes, and a warm wish for a joyous Yule season for all of our readers, wherever and whoever you are, whatever you believe, and whoever you love !

[And for extra holiday fun from last year, click here to see the Stonehenge model at Babbacombe Village while decorated for Christmas last year.]