New York circa 1903. "Steeplechase Park, Coney Island." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

New York circa 1904. "Hotel Manhattan, 42nd Street." Another architectural view with many interesting details being peripheral to the subject at hand. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1904. "Dudley Street Station, Boston 'L' Railway." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

April 1979, still in the early days of the home video revolution, in which I was something of a pioneer. Here I'm at the controls of my Advent VideoBeam projection television, which threw a 5.75-foot wide image onto a silvered screen. I got it in 1976 and my first Betamax VCR the following year - #2 is on the bottom shelf, a 2-hour capable SL-8200, replacing the 1-hour-only SL-7200. The gizmo on the shelf above the Betamax is an Atari Video Music. You ran audio into it, hooked it up to your TV and it produced garish animated abstract electronic patterns bouncing around in response to the musical content, the parameters of which you could control via a bunch of knobs and switches. Devo apparently used one in an early music video. It was, like, far out man. View full size.

This is in the video room a friend and I built in the basement of my folks' Larkspur house. The window in the back is for the projection of Super-8 films onto the VideoBeam screen via a clever arrangement of front-surfaced mirrors, as that wall is only a foot or so from the huge old gravity furnace. The wide-angle lens distorts the door frame angle.

Just last year I got my third projection video system, the largest yet, and in adjusted dollars it was the cheapest of the three.

Kodachrome (Konica Autoreflex T) via self-timer and bounce flash (Vivitar 273).

Continuing our circa 1900 tour of ever more grandiose public buildings: "Boston post office." With an enterprising exterminator's wagon out front. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, circa 1901. "Shoo-fly at Madame Boyle's." Another glimpse of nattily dressed tourists taking the air in this Southern resort. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Mississippi circa 1901. "Harry's Villa, Bay St. Louis." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.